Drone 2: Drone Harder
by LeaderPinhead
Summary: Jeffrey is a Vehicon. A neon green, Spanish soap opera loving, gaming troll, and squirrel hunter (i.e. kitty) collector Vehicon. Apparently neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons ever got that memo. What's a Vehicon to do when he's roped back into a war he never wanted to fight? [Sequel to Drone and A Drone Named Jeffrey] [eventual ArceexOC]
1. Prologue: Welcome to Jasper

**AN:** Drone has finally returned! I have no idea how many people out there may have been anticipating the return of the series, but I couldn't resist jumping back into the story of Jeffrey the Vehicon and his human sidekick Riley XD I'm hoping to be writing this story alongside the other story I'm working on-Rise-in the same way my other stories have worked (i.e. when I got stuck on one story, I could use the other to help me), so I have no idea how frequently this will be updated. Hopefully, every other week, but I've been have a wonky update schedule for a while now.

So, this is the "official" sequel to Drone. There's gonna be major amounts of humor, some drama, and even a little bit of romance ;P The timeline might be a little wonky, but it takes place a little after the first season finale. Fair warning though, this will _not_ be a story that faithfully follows the exact plot of _Transformers: Prime_. I never had any intention of doing word for word each episode, but there will likely be references to certain events as we go along. But this is an officially AU story because Jeffrey don't care how canon is supposed to work ;P

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Prologue

Welcome to Jasper, Nevada

* * *

Humans are terrible drivers.

I've been obeying the traffic laws for little less than one human year, and no one can convince me otherwise. The past seven human hours has only solidified that belief, and I jerked to the far side of my lane when the human beside me drifted a little too close for comfort. It was like it was impossible for a human to understand the simple basics of the road: this is _my_ lane, and that is _their_ lane.

Stay out of my lane, bad human driver.

"Would you stop swerving, Jeff? My dad's never gonna let me drive again if you run us off the side of the road."

My engine growled, and I pushed myself past the incompetent human beside us. Take that—maybe my perfect driving abilities will rub off on all the other human drivers around us. "But it's not my fault! The humans keep getting too close."

Riley lowered her phone and glanced out the window. Furball growled from the passenger's seat, but Riley just patted it on the head. "What are you talking about? I haven't seen anyone get anywhere near you."

"That's because you've been playing on your communications doohickey. You're a terrible example of a human driver."

"Or the perfect example of a _teenage_ driver."

I sent a burst of cold air through my vent. Riley squealed, and Furball growled again and jumped into the backseat to escape my assault. Riley smacked the vent away from her, but I angled it back towards her just as easily. "You're not a driver at all. _I'm_ the one that's been chauffeuring you around this whole time."

"Nu uh! There was that…one time."

I laughed and swerved between two cars to pass them. I swiveled my side mirror and spotted Riley's dad far behind us in the moving truck. I was glad the only thing that got packed into my trunk was Riley's small things. "You mean when we had to take your dad to work because he had to fix his truck? Yeah, I drove then too—you just put your hands on the wheel and pretended you were driving."

"I'm good pretend driver." Riley dropped her phone in the seat beside her and put both of her hands on the steering wheel. I turned it to pass an old truck chugging along beside us. "See? It's all in the—holy crap!"

Had I not been paying attention, I probably would have swerved right into the red sports car that attempted to keep up with us in the next lane. As it was, it was easy to keep my wheels straight when Riley suddenly jerked it to the side and stomped her foot on the floorboard next to my brake pedal. I tightened the seatbelt around her when she stomped again. "Hey! My insides aren't nearly as sensitive as the rest of me, but they're still my insides. So no stomping!"

"Jeffrey, you need to slow down _right now_."

I did an impressive snake pattern across the three lane of traffics. It was almost funny how the sports car tried to keep up. "Why? I'm not even going that fast."

"You're going a hundred and twenty miles per hour!"

"So?"

Furball hissed from the backseat when Riley pushed back her seat to kick me without hitting one of the pedals. "You're going to be a metal pretzel if you crash into someone, and humans don't recover from that!"

" _If_ —I'd never crash into someone."

"You know what my dad would say to that? 'It's always the _other_ guy's fault'."

"You're dad's smart."

Riley opened her mouth to retort before slamming it back shut. I let my engine hum at the odd behavior, but never got a chance to ask when Riley said, "Pull over."

I slowed down a little. "What's the matter? Why do you sound so…pitiful?"

"Just pull over, Jeffrey."

"But—"

"Pull over!"

I would've shrugged had I been able to, but I slowed down and turned into the left lane to pull off the side of the road. When I stopped, the black and white car with blue and red lights twirling on top of it followed, and the obnoxious whining sound it had been making cut off with a funny "whoop whoop!" I was wondering when that thing would shut up.

Riley slouched down into the seat, and Furball ducked down into the floorboard of the backseat, crawling under the blanket Riley had put back there with a low growl. I rolled back and forth on my wheels and barely paid attention to the human that rolled out of the car behind us. "Riley? Are you sick? You're not going to spew nasty stuff inside me, are you? I saw someone do that on TV, and it didn't look pretty."

"Just shut up and pretend you're a car."

"But—"

"I said shut up!"

I huffed and settled down on my wheels as the other human stopped outside my window and knocked. I ignored Riley rolling down the window and stared ahead of us at the sign standing not far away from us. "Welcome to Jasper, Nevada!"—at least the signs seemed friendlier than the human welcoming committee.

* * *

I'm not going to lie—car washes terrify me. I'm firmly against them; I think they're the spawns of the Unmaker and should be treated as such. These death traps have taught me that there is more to fear than just Megatron, and I'm not just saying that because I officially defected from the Decepticons. It's just…being stuck in such a confined space, with jets of cheap cleaner shooting at you from every angles, and being assaulted by these huge, rolling tendrils of abusive cloth—it's some kind of scene from a horror movie!

A horn blared behind me, but I wouldn't budge. Nope, not gonna roll into the dripping death trap. The humans behind me can just kiss my—

My entire frame jerked forward from the opposing forces of my gas and brake pedals. I forced my engine to growl, but the pinching fingers grasping my steering wheel punishingly twisted. I flipped the sun visor down and happily rumbled at the yelp that came from Riley when it connected with the top of her head.

"Jeffrey!" My visor came down again, and I nearly forgot about my impending doom. Then Riley slammed her foot on the pedal, and it became a new struggle to stay out of the growling death trap. "Stop being a big baby and get in the car wash!"

"No!"

"The only way you're getting washed is by going through there."

"I'll suffer through the dirt…until you can get all the cleaning supplies unpacked."

"I will paint you pink!"

"Colors mean nothing to me at this point! Except hot pink—just don't pick that pink."

"Fine." I completely froze when Riley leaned back in the seat, arms crossed over her chest. "I guess I'll just _accidentally_ delete all those episodes of _Love in Seattle_."

I gasped. "You wouldn't _dare_."

"We do need more space on the DVR. And you know, my fingers _do_ sometimes slip on the remote. One wrong click and it's bye-bye—"

"Okay!" The horn behind us finally faded as I reluctantly inched forwards. I took my precious time, letting the LED sign berate me to pull forward and back up until I was perfectly centered. "You owe me."

"Oh, yeah. I _so_ owe you for paying to clean you after you spent the last seven hours collecting bugs on your window."

I grumbled and hunched down as far as I could on my wheels. The first streams of ice cold water suddenly attacked from all sides, and I had to control myself from lurching forward and out of the car wash. "It's cold!"

"Cold showers aren't that bad. They help your hair and pores."

"That would be _so_ comforting if I had hair and skin!" Riley went quiet after that, playing with her fingers. I hunkered down as much as I could and mentally prepared myself for the longest four minutes of my life because of course Riley would choose the option to let this monster do everything it could to me.

Note to self: avoid what the humans called "cops" at all costs. Especially when Riley's dad was following us.

* * *

I sped down the empty highway, resisting the urge to push past sixty. All the windows of my alt-mode were rolled down, and Riley's hand was sticking out of her window while she sang along with the radio. Normally (and after the first three months of her pestering), I would sing along with the more popular songs, but I was a little preoccupied at the moment.

Car washes always lied—their "spot free" rinses weren't really spot free!

"Jeffrey, you're gonna miss our turn." Riley grabbed the handle above her head with both hands and leaned into the sharp, tire squealing turn I performed. "Speed limit's twenty-three now."

"I know, I know!" I straightened back out and reluctantly dialed back on my speed as we entered the residential area of our trip. "But come on—you've said it yourself that the speed limit is just a _suggestion._ When did you suddenly start being all 'law abiding citizen' on me?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe when we had that cop glaring at us earlier?" Riley rapped her knuckles against the top of my steering wheel. "We're lucky that was our first warning. Next time, dad will ground us _and_ make me pay the speeding ticket. Do you wanna be stuck in the garage for the rest of the month?"

 _"Wouldn't be much different from now."_ I couldn't say that out loud though. After a year or so of living in a human community, I had grown used to being cooped up in a garage. Heck, life in a garage was better than it had been on the _Nemesis_ , and that's saying something.

It got boring all the same. Especially when Riley got lazy and didn't feel like going anywhere. Apparently, her dad didn't believe her car could get possessed and drive off by itself to have a good time. That was just silly.

But I digress. "That all depends; could I get some cable while I'm stuck out there?"

Riley snorted out a laugh. "You and TV. Is that seriously what's important to you now, Jeffrey?"

"You're one to talk. Who's the one getting all upset when she's not allowed to binge watch a sappy movie marathon?"

I drastically slowed down when we turned onto our new street. The new house sat practically in the middle of the street, flanked by similar houses on both sides. The only reason I didn't mistake it for another was the orange and white moving truck sitting in the driveway with a path of boxes and pieces of furniture leading up to the silver truck parked inside the garage. Riley's dad stood out by the road, but he was too busy talking to another human to acknowledge my fancy backwards parking in the driveway.

Because all the cool cars parked backwards.

After a minute or so of "payback" for the car wash, Riley yanked off her seatbelt and rolled out of the car. I had to contain my snickers because her dad and his new friend finally turned towards us when Riley hit the ground with a yelp. Her dad laughed for me though. "Is that how you get outta cars now?"

Riley stood up and, after a fierce glare, slammed my door shut. "Yeah, dad. All the cool kids do it that way."

More laughter ensued, and her dad's new friend added her polite laugh. "As long as you're not doing anything worse. Come over here and meet our new neighbor. She even made some welcome-to-the-neighborhood cookies."

"More like bought." Neighbor lady laughed and gestured the plastic container she held in one hand. She swiped at a strand of black hair that had fallen in her face and held out the same hand to complete the common human greeting ritual with Riley. "And you must be Riley. Your father was just telling me about you. I believe you and my son are the same age…"

And that's when I stopped listening. I focused more on Furball crawling out from beneath the bush beside the garage and jumping on my hood with an annoyed growl. Yeah, I know Furball—I couldn't wait for the garage to be cleared too. My little gamepad and direct cable called to me.

Plus, I needed to start looking into where to find Energon around here. From the maps I still had from my Decepticon life, there was a very severe lack of mines in this area, which wasn't very surprising. The Autobots had been more determined to keep us out of this area in this country. I had been lucky there had been mines around where we had previously lived because it was practically on the edge of the "Autobot Perimeter" as we Vehicons had called it.

A little suspicious if you asked me, but Starscream had never questioned it. So now I was mentally calculating how much longer my stash would last before I had to travel six hours from home to find another mine. Even then, there wasn't any promise of there being an overlooked Energon crystal.

Thanks Starscream—really, you were such a great leader.

Furball hissed, and its claws scratched against my hood when a high-powered engine revved in the distance. None of the humans appeared too concerned by the noise, but I automatically focused on the direction it sounded like it was coming from. With how low my Energon reserves currently were, I couldn't activate any sensors that reached beyond the street of houses we now lived on. I had to rely on good old audials and optics, and that put me at a slight disadvantage for any surprise attack.

The engine got closer, its changing pitch signaling it changing speed. For the first time since I started living with the humans, I felt a tenseness wash over my frame. There was something off about the sound of that engine—something that I couldn't specifically put my finger on. I wanted to rumble my engine and drift closer to Riley, but she was still stuck between the two adults making small talk. Instead, I settled for a soft hum that would go unnoticed by any of the humans, and Furball calmed back down enough to curl up in a tight ball on my hood.

A two-wheeler swerved around the corner and gunned down the street. My humming stuttered—making Furball uncurl enough to glare at me—the closer the two-wheeler got. The sleek blue form shone in the waning light of the day, and the engine purred when it slowed down to coast into the driveway across from me. Backwards—to face me.

Oh, there was also a human, but who would pay attention to him when he standing next to that perfect specimen of a two-wheeler? At least some humans have taste.

"Jack!" I shuddered and then forced myself to sit still when Furball stood up on my hood to glare back at me. The human standing beside the two-wheeler smiled and waved before he jogged across the street to stand next to neighbor lady and my human family. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gestured between him and Riley. "This is my son, Jack. Jack, these are our new neighbors. It sounds like you and Riley might be in the same class."

The kid scratched the back of his head with one hand and held out the other towards Riley, which she took after a moment. The parents picked the conversation back up, but of course, I wasn't listening. I was too busy staring at the two-wheeler next door.

Jasper, Nevada didn't seem so bad anymore.

* * *

 **AN:** And there we have it! Short and sweet, but nearly as short as the other stories XD With Drone 2.0 not being prompt based or word limited, I'm hoping to put together a more detailed and connected story than the previous story. We'll see how that goes in the future, but for now, the chapters will probably be around the 2000-3000 word length ;P

I also wanna start asking questions at the end of every chapter to get some exact feedback. I'm starting to learn that's the best way to figure out certain aspects of my writing and what I can do to improve it. So, the first question is about character: After two stories and one prologue, how are you guys liking Jeffrey and Riley? Do they have certain traits you like? Dislike? Let me know what you guys think about them, whether it's good or bad :D

I'll be seeing you guys in the next update! :D


	2. The Motorcycle Next Door

**AN:** Yay, I'm actually updating something! \^o^/ I'm so happy all of you guys are just as excited to be jumping back into the adventures of Jeffrey the Vehicon; you guys have absolutely no idea how amazing it was to see so many responses last chapter, both answering my end chapter question and showing excitement for Drone's return. So thank you all for your wonderful responses :D

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter I

The Motorcycle Next Door

* * *

I didn't know whether I liked my new garage or not.

I mean, it wasn't _bad_. It was a lot warmer than the last one, and there would probably be more space when the boxes stacked along the back wall were unpacked and put away. That being said, it wasn't _great_ either. There was a funny smell that made me shut down all of my olfactory sensors, and the roof didn't slope upwards so I could at least crouch in comfort.

There was also an issue with the door, and I hissed back at Furball through the window. "You be quiet! We wouldn't be having this issue if you obeyed your curfew. I should just make you stay out there—maybe then you'd learn your lesson."

Furball's growl was muffled by the glass, but its narrowed yellow eyes and swishing tail made it easy to figure out how it felt. I waited a second before gently pressing the glowing green button with the tip of my finger. The door began to rise, and I quickly tapped it again. The door screeched to a stop, but then began to lower again.

I huffed and pressed the button again. I'm starting to think this thing is broken, or maybe it's just because of its human design. I don't know; it's always a fifty-fifty chance when it comes to this kind of stuff. Sometimes I wished I had been onlined as a technician instead of a foot soldier.

"Jeffrey!"

My finger hovered over the button, and I half-turned in the direction of the hiss. Riley stood in the door that led inside the house, and the faint light coming in from behind her made her hair look more of a mess than it usually did. I tilted my head when she stomped down the two steps and lowered my hand to lightly poke at her shoulder. "What are you wearing? Is that the fabled 'dress' I've been told about but never gifted a chance to see? I don't get what you hate so much about it—it's just like what you usually wear."

Riley swatted at my finger with a growl. "They're called pajamas, and don't try to distract me with your non-existent curiosity about human fashion. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

I shifted from a crouch to a sitting position and tilted my head in the other direction. "My chronometer says it's 2:53 ante meridiem in our area of the world. It's also 12:53 post meridiem on the other side of the world. Does that mean that you're technically late for school?"

We stared at each other long enough for Furball to start pawing at the window. Riley sighed and lifted one hand to rub at her eyes. "It's too early to deal with you being a smart aft. Why were you playing with the garage?"

"I wasn't _playing_." I pointed at the window where Furball still sat glaring at me. "Furball didn't want to listen to me when I said its curfew was a legitimate thing."

Riley sighed again and shuffled over to unlatch the window. Furball jumped in the moment it had enough space, and it glared at me before scurrying to a box infested corner. I lifted two fingers to point at my optics and then the spot where it had disappeared. I'd seen Riley's dad make the gesture a few times, and it seemed appropriate for the situation now. "I'm watching you, squirrel annihilator."

Riley shook her head and slid the window closed again. She barely glanced my way as she shuffled back towards the door. "There—problem solved. Now go to sleep."

I pulled my legs to my chest and waited until Riley had tripped up the steps and closed the door behind her. I tapped my fingers against the top of my knees and counted to ten. Furball poked its head out from behind a box when the garage door started to rise again.

The door to the house swung open just when I had pressed the button to stop the garage door, and Riley stood glaring in the doorway. "Jeffrey! What are you doing?"

The garage slid closed, and I hid my hands behind my raised knees. My visor cast a red glow over Riley's scowling face when I brightened it. "Nothing."

Something above Riley's eye twitched, and I immediately focused on it. Human faces were interestingly flexible, but I had never seen it twitch that way. "Don't play coy with me! Your cat's inside now, so why the heck are you still playing with the garage?"

I picked at one of the joints on my finger. I should really dedicate more time to keeping those clean. "You know…just 'cause."

"Well, we're going to figure out what happens when I stick a potato up your tailpipe _just 'cause_." I snickered at the threat, which made Riley glare at me even more. She walked over to kick my leg and then crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. "C'mon, Jeffrey! I wanna sleep, and you making all this noise isn't helping."

I shifted my legs to stretch a little more in front of me and leaned back against the wall. The wall made a groaning noise under my weight, and I stopped short of putting enough pressure on it to make a dent. "Sorry. I keep forgetting this garage is attached to the house. Opening and closing the door wasn't an issue at the old place."

Riley's eyes narrowed, but they lacked the hard glint that would have made the expression a glare. "You used to sneak out at the old house?"

"Of course." I shrugged when her eyes widened, and her frame lost some of its previous tension. "I don't sleep nearly as often as humans do. Usually, I spent the nights searching an Energon mine or just riding around when I got bored of playing on that gamepad."

Riley shook her head and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "Well, sorry you get bored at night, but you've gotta stop with the garage door. If you wanna go on a midnight joyride, then that's cool. Just make sure you're back before dad wakes up to find you missing and don't spend half the night playing with the door."

I nodded and picked at another joint. I should _really_ start paying attention to how much grime builds up there—seriously. "Cool."

I waited for Riley to go back inside, but she stood there staring up at me with half lidded brown eyes. She jumped when Furball weaved through her legs, and it growled at the unintentional kick in the side. I lowered my hand and let the animal jump into my palm. "Did you fall asleep standing? I think I saw somewhere on the internet where that was possible."

"No." I deposited Furball on my shoulder, and it wiggled up into the gap between my neck and vents. "What's really your issue?"

"Nothing." Riley didn't even glare this time; she just stood there staring up at me with a small frown. I shifted, and Furball purred at the sudden rush of hot air from my vents. "Fine. Your new boyfriend left his bike parked outside."

Riley's eyes widened. "He is not my boyfriend!"

"What? He's a boy, and he's your friend." I tilted my head when Riley sputtered and tripped when she took a step back. "Am I not using the term correctly?"

"How could you—do you remember that chat we had about what a 'crush' was?"

"Yeah."

"Crushes go hand in hand with boyfriends or girlfriends."

"Oh…I still don't see what I got wrong."

Riley groaned and ran a hand through her hair. I snickered when her finger caught in a few strands, and she winced when she yanked them out. "What does any of this have to do with you obsession with the garage door."

"Nothing. Time for the human to go back to sleep!" I made a shooing motion with my hand, but Riley sidestepped my fingers. "Weren't you just complaining about wanting to sleep?"

"Yeah, but now I'm curious." Riley dodged my hand again, and I sighed. What the heck was I going to do anyway? Pick her up and shove through the door? It'd be hard to explain the damage my fingers would make to her dad. Not to mention the fact that she'd just come right back. "Why does Jack parking his motorcycle outside have you so upset?"

I straightened enough to see out the tinted windows that lined the top of the garage door. The blue two-wheeler sat in the driveway across the street, facing the direction of our garage. It sat perfectly still, but I still ducked back down as soon as I could. "It's irresponsible! What if some storm blows through and knocks it over? Or one of those nocturnal animals decides to attack? Raccoons are just as bad as squirrels; instead of nuts, they use trashcans."

"Jeff—"

"Or somebody kidnaps her!" I peeked out of the window a second time. The two-wheeler still sat perfectly balanced in the driveway. "That kid's just asking for another human to come along and ride off into the distance on her. I bet he even keeps the keys dangling on the handlebars, or worse—he keeps the keys in the _ignition_. Stop laughing at me!"

Riley snorted between her laughs and wrapped an arm around her stomach. I glared down at her and nodded when Furball's purrs turned into a low growl. Riley snorted some more and patted my leg. "I think we need to talk about _your_ new girlfriend, but right now, I'm going back to bed."

Riley shuffled back inside with a few more giggles. I glanced out the window—the two-wheeler still sat perfectly still in the same spot—and back at the door. Furball sniffed when I scrunched up into the smallest ball my inflexible frame could contort into. "She's not my girlfriend."

* * *

It only took a week for me to completely map out the tiny town of Jasper. There was one main road down the center of the town that connected to every side road. Not that there was any where to go in this town; from what I had overheard from Riley's new boyfriend, the three main places to know was the school, this place called an arcade, and another by the name of KO Burger.

Personally, I thought this place called Simply Shoes was pretty important, but Riley wasn't as impressed with the alliteration.

The point was that the town was a lot smaller than where we previously lived, which made it easier to get everywhere. It also made it super boring, especially when the horror known as school began for my little human. Oh, she acted all sympathetic, patting my steering wheel and promising that time would fly by "just like that," but I wasn't the naïve Vehicon I once was.

I didn't even have killer squirrels to wage a territory war against.

Instead, I sat in a tiny parking lot locked tight by a school official and left to wistfully stare at the road to freedom. It was times like these that put my new life in perspective—the harsh, cold reality of domesticated life. I didn't even have nice looking two-wheeler to stare at because neighbor boyfriend got dropped off by his mom.

Riley owed me after this. We were going to drive out and find the most remote place in the desert and shoot lizards. Maybe some birds—mostly lizards though. I deserved a reward for not bailing at the first sound of "school."

A yellow and black striped car slowly rolled by, and I let my engine idly thrum. Lucky—it was still innocent of the world and free from the stranglehold of teenage life. Then again, I had seen multiple versions of that car cooped up in the school parking lot. Apparently, it was popular among the humans Riley's age. Me, on the other hand, I'm special. Yeah, Riley had said that my chosen alt-mode was called a "concept car" and pretty pricey, which meant that, like, no one had one of me.

If you forget the fact that every Vehicon had this alt-mode, I was like a special little piece of frozen water from the sky. Not that anyone her age seemed to appreciate that, considering the fact that yellow and black Camaros were all the rage. They weren't so special if you asked me though.

I quieted my engine once more and sat silently in the parking lot. Maybe Riley wouldn't make me sit here forever; we could come to an agreement of me dropping her off in front of the school and spending that time doing…something else. I mean, the whole reason I was doing this was to pretend to be like a human car in case someone was watching, but it's been close to a human year now, and if anything was going to happen, it would have happened by now.

Right?

Right. Soundwave was the only one who would figure out a Vehicon had gone rogue, and he had plenty of other more important stuff to deal with like keeping Starscream from completely losing his mind. And the Autobots…heck, I don't even know what they did, but I figured they would never even notice a missing Vehicon. That meant I should probably find a way to reign in my paranoia now and stop imagining that every bird was Laserbeak…

I hummed as another yellow and black Camaro rolled by, this one going in the opposite direction than the first one. A nasty green truck followed, and I shuddered. Of all the colors to choose from, why would a human pick _that_ color to paint a car? It was just an ugly green, and I'm not saying that because I'm bias.

What had I been thinking about before? Maybe I could just log into my gaming account and make the kids skipping school angry with my mad shooting skills. I launched the simple program that would connect me to the internet and checked all of the games I had downloaded.

Ooh! They updated _Fruit Ninja_. That'll keep me entertained for a while.

I paused to watch the nasty green truck crawl back by and scoffed before dedicating all my attention to the game. Humans were so bad when it came to driving—always getting lost and having to turn around. They should really just stick to their two little feet.

* * *

I was in the middle of intense puzzle solving action when the school's bell buzzed. I checked my chronometer—as I had been doing every time the bell sounded—and nearly rolled out of my parking space. Kids began to filter out the building, some heading in the direction of the parking lot, others stopping to stand in front of the building, and another group just walking off in various directions. I rumbled my engine when I spotted Riley skipping down the steps. Yes, human, hurry so we can leave and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting creatures of the desert.

Riley stopped and turned to the girl that had been following her. They laughed, Riley throwing back her head when the other girl started sporadically waving her arms. Aw, how cute! My human found another human buddy on her first day.

Now, she better get her scrawny rear over here before I "forget" to be an ordinary car and leave her.

Riley turned towards the parking lot and pointed in my direction. Her friend turned too, and her mouth dropped open. Her weird little head accessories bobbed up and down when she started talking again, and I couldn't help but sit a little higher on my wheels.

Yes, bask in my glory little human. I might even think about letting you into my cab if Riley really likes you. Or the trunk—I don't see why that wouldn't work.

Riley and new friend began walking towards me when neighbor boy jumped in front of them. I slumped back on my wheels when he started talking; great, even more of a delay. I think I might just sneak out with the line of cars that are slowly exiting the unlocked gate. Me and Riley are going to have a chat about punctuality.

Eventually, Riley waved at the two and jogged across the lot to me. I popped the door open when she reached me and started my engine before she could even toss her backpack into the other seat. "Finally! What took you so long? I think I died from boredom four times today."

Riley laughed and reached for the seatbelt. I skidded out of my spot and joined the line to sweet freedom. "I like this place a lot more than my old school! The teachers are cooler, the food's better, and I actually met someone in class that I like!"

"I thought you already liked neighbor boyfriend."

"Like you and the motorcycle next door?" I honked my horn and ignored the kids that turned to glare at me. "Not so funny when it's thrown back at you, huh?"

"I can throw you out any time I want to."

" _Sure_ you can, but you won't." Riley patted my steering wheel, and I jerked it to the side as we made it out of the parking lot. I might've cut someone off in the process, but they should live. "Anyway, I met a girl named MIko, who has _the_ coolest friends from what she was telling me, and Jack introduced me to this cute little nerd, who I can't remember his name right now…but my science teacher is awesome."

I kinda tuned her out at that point. I mean, I might consider myself the little human's friend at this point, but that didn't mean I had to listen to her when she went on her little rants. I hummed in the right spots and focused on getting out of town in the quickest way possible.

I cruised down the town's main road—obeying the boring human speed limit—until I was forced to stop at a red light. I idled there, examining the little buildings on either side of the road and barely acknowledging the car that rolled to a stop behind us. I stared at one shop in particular. I wonder why the humans need a hundred flavors of ice cream…

"Oh! I wanna stop by KO Burger later too. Jack really wanted me to check the place out after school." The light changed, and I sped down the street again, attempting to beat the next red light a few feet ahead of us. "He kept going on about it all day, and even said he could give me a ride after school, but I figured you wouldn't want to sit out in another parking lot for who knows how long…and I'm not really in a burger mood."

"Speaking of parking lots…" I trailed off as we were stopped by the next light. The road had split into four lanes by now, and I adjusted my side mirror to watch the other cars. The puke green truck from earlier rolled to a stop behind two cars on our right. I flicked the mirror to get a better view of it. "Have you seen that truck before?"

Riley twisted in her seat and leaned towards the passenger's side. "What truck?"

"The one two cars behind us. In the other lane."

"The one behind the mini-van?

"Yeah."

"No. Why?"

I kept my mirror trained on the idling truck while counting down the long seconds it took the light to change. "I saw it earlier, but now that I get a better look at it, it seems familiar."

Riley shrugged and fell back into her seat. "Jasper is a pretty small place; maybe you've seen it around town or something."

"Maybe…"

I adjusted another mirror to look behind us when Riley started describing the rest of her day. The black and yellow Camaro directly behind me inched forward, nearly tapping my bumper. That's all it did though—just sat there barely an inch away. I felt a crackle of energy emit from it, and the embossment on the front of its hood finally made everything click together perfectly. It inched closer and revved its engine.

I took off the moment the light changed. Riley flew back with a yelp, and I ignored the pinching fingers that grabbed the handle above the door. She jerked to the side when I took a sharp turn. "What the heck Jeffrey!"

I focused on the road in front of me. It was one of the many ways to get to Riley's dad's new workplace; I could just drop her off there and take another back road out of town and maybe lose the Autobots out in the desert.

I heard the squeal of tires behind me and swerved into an alley. Riley screeched when a trashcan flew over my hood and crashed against the windshield, but I ignored her once more. I couldn't take her back to her dad; that would just make everything worse. Autobots didn't hurt humans as far as I knew, but what the heck did I _really_ know about Autobots other than they liked to shoot at me? They might think Riley and her dad were a threat just because they knew me!

I spun out of the alley, clipping the back of bumper against the corner of the building and sending a huge chunk of that wall flying, and back onto the main road. Horns blared behind me, but I only noticed the Camaro that swerved out behind me and the green truck further down the road. I pushed myself to go faster, swerving around a pair of stopped cars and through a red light.

For all my paranoia—which apparently I gave up a little too early—why did I never actually _plan_ on what to do if I was found? Sure, I've thought of a dozen ways I would be found: maybe Riley's dad would find an Autobot the same way he found me; maybe I would mistake Laserbeak for a bird and shoot it making Soundwave come after me in revenge; maybe I'd stumble across Starscream's secret gaming profile, and he'd get angry at me for being better and somehow realize I was a rogue Vehicon and reenact our online battle by bombing me from the sky.

Not all of my potential scenarios made sense, but that didn't change the fact that I never had a plan of action for afterwards.

I checked behind me, and the Autobot Camaro wasn't having any problems keeping up with me even as the traffic became heavier. Autobot truck was a lot further behind now, caught between human drivers and a red light, but that didn't make the situation any different. I knew I wasn't in any shape to take on one Autobot, let alone two.

A familiar warning flashed across my HUD, and I wanted to curse every Decepticon and Autobot I could name. As if I hadn't already known the situation was bad, now I was running on nothing but fumes. There was no way I could keep up my speed and dodging maneuvers for much longer, not without falling into a forced stasis to preserve whatever energy I might have left.

I shot through a red light and took the next side road I saw. I felt a sense of relief when I didn't immediately hear or see the yellow and black Autobot follow. He must have stopped to avoid a head on collision with a human driver, which should give me enough time to do…something. Anything—maybe I could fashion one of those white flags to wave around like in the cartoons I sometimes watch.

There was a jolt in the driver's seat when I began to slow down. "Jeffrey?"

Blunted fingers dug into the leather of my seat, and I reset my visual sensors to scan my interior. Riley sat in the seat, back rigid and eyes opened wide. Her face was paler than usual. She had become so quiet that I almost forgot she was there. Whoops. "You okay?"

She shook her head while I turned down an alley. She stayed quiet as I rolled down the narrow alley until we reached an empty parking lot wedged between the buildings. I stopped on the far side of it, and she finally opened her mouth only to close it again.

I threw open the door the driver's door, but Riley made no move to exit. Above the shriek of horns and dull drones of human vehicles, I heard the low pitch of the Autobot's engine growing closer. I wanted to beat my head against the nearest wall for putting my proximity sensors on a lower priority than broadband. For all my paranoia, gaming at some point had trumped caution.

I could hear another engine following the first, and I finally dumped Riley out of my seat when she refused to budge. She yelped and scrambled around while I slowly transformed. She stared up at me with wide brown eyes and expression that I hadn't seen since her run with the Vehicon from the mines. "Jeffrey—"

I cut her off by lifting her off the ground. She shouted and kicked her legs through the air, but I ignored her and dumped her into the nearest dumpster along the back of the parking lot. She squealed when she landed on the black bags and pieces of trash. I lifted a finger to my face when she started to squeal and growl at the same time. "Shush! Don't make any noise—just stay in there until I tell you come out."

"Jeffrey—"

Again, I cut her off by swinging the lid of the dumpster down over her. I could hear her faint shouts, but the Autobot skidding into the parking lot definitely distracted me from her promises of reassembly. I stayed crouched beside the dumpster, my arm lifted to shield it, until the Autobot smoothly transformed.

My optic band winked at the familiar frame. Not that I hadn't encountered every Autobot stationed on Earth at least _once_ in my old life, but I remembered this guy for a whole different reason. This was the Autobot that had stumbled upon me when I had been extracting the Vehicon homing beacon…and the one I had been very rude to. Maybe he didn't remember that incident as clearly as I did.

Huge blue optics cycled through settings, and Beeper's stance slightly relaxed from his battle pose. He still had his blaster trained on me, but he seemed a little less sure than before. Maybe he remembered only _pieces_ of our last meeting—the more interesting pieces like a Vehicon performing surgery on itself instead of name calling.

I slowly stood from my crouch and waved my hands in front of me when Beeper released a series of beeps and tensed again. "No, no! You remember me—I can tell. The Vehicon pulling out his own insides? Just leaving a fight without shooting anybody? That was me; I've turned over a new leaf now!"

Riley chose that moment to bang on the dumpster, and I didn't even think before I knocked back on the lid. "I told you to be quiet until I said you could come out."

When I turned back to face Beeper, all of his confusion was gone, and I now had two blasters focused on my chest. He released a series of angry beeps and warbles that probably would have made sense on a different audial frequency, but I was too focused on waving my hands. "No, no! See, this is my human—she patched me back up. I just put her in there to keep her safe. Just in case I wasn't able to talk to you because let's be serious. I'm not the best talker in situations like this."

The confusion was back—I could tell by the Autobot's optics began to cycle again—but he didn't make the mistake of dropping his guard again. Actually, I'm kind of surprised he hasn't shot me yet; this was going a lot better than I ever thought it would. So, I just kept talking. "Yeah, no one really taught us Vehicons how to talk back in the Decepticons. It's actually really rare to come across one that's good with negotiating and all that stuff. They just wanted to be sure that we knew how to fight: just aim and shoot."

I admit that my next actions were pretty stupid, but it wouldn't be the first stupid thing I've done. Probably the worst though—in hindsight, pulling out my blaster and aiming it above the Autobot's head to pantomime trumps breaking Knock Out's favorite buffer. But I didn't know I still had enough charge to shoot the thing; I was getting so many warnings about barely having enough Energon to stand, let alone shoot the only weapon I fragging had!

Everything froze the moment the Energon blast went sailing into the sky above Beeper's head. I couldn't move at all, not even to lower my blaster, and Beeper seemed just as surprised by the sudden attack. That surprise didn't last long though, and I jerked to the side to avoid direct hit to the head. I stumbled and waved my hands again. "No, no! I didn't—there wasn't supposed to be a charge left in that! It was an accident; let's just go back to talking!"

Beeper released an angry sounding series of beeps, and I had to force my frame to move faster than it wanted to in order to avoid the flying fists directed at me. I wasn't a close combat type of mech though, and Beeper managed to leave a decent dent in my chest and clip the finial on the side of my head before pulling back. I stumbled again at the sudden retreat.

Riley's head poked out of the dumpster across from me, and she gaped up at the Autobot that stood above her. My spark twisted, and I wanted to bang my head against a wall again for being so stupid. Now there wasn't anything between Riley and the Autobot.

A familiar high-powered engine roared behind me, and I twisted around in time to see a blue blur racing towards me. I felt the impact on my face more than saw it, and the force behind the attack sent me sprawling onto my back. Warnings flashed across my HUD, but I could only see the blue and silver Autobot sneering down at me. Riley screamed, and my spark felt like it was being ripped apart as I watched Autobot lift her fist.

The only thing I could think before mind-numbing pain was how big of a fragging idiot I was.

* * *

 **AN:** I have been waiting so. Freaking. _Long_. to write that end scene. Ever since the first Drone when I decided to switch from Jeffrey meeting all the Autobots just to meeting 'Bee. It has changed a little since its original conception, but I like this one a lot better XD

Since meeting the Autobots has been such an anticipatory scene my question for this chapter is all about that: how do you feel it turned out? Was it something you expected? Tell what you thought about the scene (or anything else in the chapter) whether you liked it or now :D

With that being said, I'll see you guys in the next update XD


	3. Autobots Ruin Everything

**AN:** I'm actually proud of myself for getting this chapter out so quickly! \^o^/

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter II

Autobots Ruin Everything

* * *

There was a bright, blinding light. That was the only thing I could see, though I could hear what I thought were muffled voices. Kinda like when Riley would press her head into a pillow and scream—the words are impossible to decipher but the noise is clear. There was something moving around me too; I could feel it at the very edge of my EM field.

Is this…is this the afterlife? I had heard some Vehicons talk about it like it was something to have hope for whenever they were thrust into battle. There was never anything said about a blinding light and muffled voices—mostly it was an endless Energon fountain and total lack of Decepticon command—but how could they have possibly known? They had never died.

But I apparently had, and all I could do was vent. "The afterlife sucks."

The bright light vanished, and a pair of bright blue optics took its place. An orange and white mech scowled down at me; his mouth moved, but I could only hear a muffled noise coming from him. He backed away, and I caught a glance of the emblem on his shoulder.

I groaned. "No one ever said anything about Autobots being in the afterlife."

The mech scowled and reached down towards my head. His fingers prodded my head behind my finials. I felt something click before a high pitched shrill made me jerk away with a yelp. My visor shorted out, and I rolled onto my side and used my arms to protect my head out of instinct. The shrill slowly faded, and the muffled sounds sharpened into focus.

"You said you weren't going to hurt him!"

"I just fixed his audials!"

"Why's he rolling around in pain then, huh? Answer me that."

"I don't have to answer you anything! In fact, I should contact Fowler and have him—don't do that!"

There was a light thud and a grunt beside my head. Small fingers gripped the edge of one of my fingers and tugged. There was a flurry of stomping and wordless shouts around me. I peeked through my fingers when my visor reset and found Riley frowning at me, her cheeks a darker color than usual and eyes darting to a spot behind me. "Jeffrey?"

I groaned and covered my visor again. "You're not supposed to be here either."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riley huffed when I didn't answer and banged her hands against my fingers. Her voice dropped into a whisper. "Get up, Jeffrey! I can take out the mad doctor by poking his eye out when he gets close again, but you gotta get up and deal with the beeping one."

"I heard that!"

Someone stomped towards us, and they stopped behind my back. Riley squealed, and I snapped up when a hand reached over to grab her. My hands wrapped around an orange and white arm guard, and I found myself staring down the barrel of an Energon blaster. Riley cursed at the Autobots. I froze, the tips of my fingers leaving thin scratches in the Autobot's paint.

"Bumblebee." I slightly moved my head to stare at the Autobot I held, keeping one optic on the humming blaster. The medic had his brightened optics on Riley, who wiggled and cursed in his hand. "Stand down."

Beeper beeped from the other end of the blaster, and the medic finally turned his head towards the other Autobot. "I think I would have disabled all of his weapons the moment you brought him through the Ground Bridge."

More beeps that were answered with an angry huff. I relaxed my hold when the medic relaxed his hold on Riley. "I said stand down! You said he tried to talk you, and the human jumped in to protect him. This isn't something to take lightly; Optimus would at least give him a chance to explain."

"But Optimus isn't here, Ratchet." Riley hissed through her teeth and glared somewhere behind the medic. I slowly inched my fingers down the arm I still held; if I was quick enough, maybe I could pry open the medic's fingers… "And since when does a Vehicon speaking warrant us using _our_ limited resources to repair it?"

"Since he actually attempted to talk instead of fight."

"Yeah, and then it attacked Bumblebee."

The medic turned to face the Autobot speaking, and his fingers loosened just enough. I jerked forward and grabbed Riley from his hand. Riley clung to my fingers but protested when I brought her to my chest. I ignored her and kept my optics on the Autobots.

Beeper released a small whirr, and his blaster glowed brighter; despite his words, one of the medic's hands transformed into a short, but sharp, blade; and I felt more than saw a second blaster tap the side of my head, humming in my audial.

Riley scowled from between my fingers and tried to wiggle her way out. I kept my fingers cupped around her and attempted to keep the sharp points of them from hurting her. "You said you wouldn't hurt him!"

"This is getting ridiculous." The blaster against my head nudged me, and I felt the heat from the weapon increase along with the humming. "It's obviously a Decepticon scout; probably even sent out by Megatron in an attempt to find our base. No matter what Optimus may or may not have done, he's not here right now, and it can't be trusted."

I almost squished Riley in an attempt to keep her hidden. Instead, her persistent wiggling caused me to loosen my hold in order not to hurt her, and Riley pushed herself out of my fingers to point at the Autobot that held the blaster against my head. "And who are you to judge Jeffrey like that? Jeffrey might have done some bad things before my dad found him, but he hasn't even hurt a fly since I repaired him!"

Not true—I have in fact squished a few cockroaches and a number of spiders per Riley's request. Plus the innocent lizards, scorpions, birds, and snakes for target practice. Oh, and I ran over a squirrel once, but that was surprisingly on accident. None of that would help my case though, so I kept my vocalizer offline and listened.

"Then you come along and just attack him for no reason. Now you're deciding whether he can be trusted? Whether he has a right to even live? You've been spouting how you're the so called 'good guys' since you brought us here, but you're only a group of big bullies! Jeffrey wasn't doing anything wrong before you came along—you're the ones that provoked and hurt him."

Riley gasped for breath, and I automatically used a finger to rub her back. Her tiny body pulsed beneath my finger. I take back what I said earlier; I would gladly take Riley into the afterlife with me. She's a much better speaker in situations like this.

The medic slowly lowered his blade, and it transformed back into a hand, which he then used to lower Beeper's blaster. Beeper whirred and buzzed but put away his weapon anyway; his optics remained fastened on me. The medic gave the Autobot next to me a sharp look. "Arcee, put your weapon down."

"Ratchet—"

"No." The medic gestured towards me, and I cupped Riley closer to my chest. She huffed and patted my armor. "Despite our current…problems, this situation warrants more than a casual dismissal. You've both said that this human put herself between you to protect the Vehicon; now, I know that none of us are experts when it comes to humans, but no human would have defended—and continued to defend—anything that caused them harm."

"Sure they do. It's called Stockholm's Syndrome. Or brainwashing."

Riley growled and glared at the lone Autobot that remained armed. I finally turned my head to figure out who it was and froze. Bright azure optics glared back at me, and the scowl across her face did nothing to diminish their glow. I tilted my head to look down and got a blaster to the face. "Optics up here, Vehicon."

"His name's Jeffrey!" Riley reached out to swat at the weapon, and the blue femme jerked back—almost like she didn't want Riley to hurt herself. "And stop pointing guns at him! It's rude."

Beeper let out a series of beeps and buzzes that turned my attention back to him. He was facing the medic with his door-wings fluttering on his back and finger lifted to scratch at his cheekplate. The medic seemed startled. "Why didn't you mention any of this before, Bumblebee? Optimus would have…it doesn't matter. Are you positive this is the same Vehicon?"

Beeper shrugged and released another series of whirrs. I tilted my head; if this was any other situation, I would have asked what language the sounds were. It wasn't anything I had heard back on the _Nemesis_ , and it definitely wasn't a human language.

Riley patted my chest, and I glanced down at her. "Do you know what he's saying?"

"Not a clue."

I thought I was being as quiet as Riley, but apparently my whispers immediately caught the attention of the Autobots, and all three were staring at me with various expressions. Beeper let out one last beep, and the medic sighed. The femme's scowl deepened. "That hardly changes anything. It could still be a Decepticon scout that held a human family hostage. Why else would it pretend to be a human vehicle and hide its Energon signal?"

"I am not a hostage!"

None of them acknowledged Riley's shout, and she huffed and tucked closer to my chest. She dug into the pocket of her jeans as the Autobots began communicating through a comm. link (or at least, that's the only explanation I could come up with for their sudden silence) and pulled out her phone. The little screen on it flashed the time. "My dad's going to freak out if he comes home and we're not there."

That seemed to catch their attention. The medic shook his head and turned to Riley. "Whatever decision we make, we need to return the human to her family. The last thing we need right now is another child running around the base."

Riley put her phone away and clung to my fingers. She glared up at the Autobots, and I felt a sudden wave of pride. For all my earlier worries, Riley wasn't simply rolling over to the whims of the Autobots. "I'm not leaving Jeffrey! You would have killed him if I wasn't here to stop you."

"We're not letting a 'Con return to a human neighborhood."

"Nobody asked you, you…dirty fighting robot!"

I actually snickered at the startled expression the femme gave Riley. Beeper and the medic seemed just as surprised as the femme, but Riley just glared up at the femme from the safety of my hands. "If Jeffrey's been kidnapped, then I've been kidnapped."

Beeper's optics cycled wide, and the medic huffed and puffed. The femme had finally put away her blaster at some point. "Kidnapped?"

"That's what you did." Riley pointed at Beeper and the femme. "You chased after Jeffrey for no reason, knocked him out, and then made us go through the portal thingy against our will. That's assault and kidnapping. The least you can do is send my dad a ransom so he doesn't think I'm breaking curfew."

The Autobots seemed like they had been stunned into silence from the way they just stared at Riley. I vented and adjusted my hold on her. Riley complied with my nudges, though she glared when I rolled her around to scan every inch of her body. She had bruises on one of her arms and all of her knuckles and her knees were scrapped. Other than that, she seemed fine. "Did they hurt you, Riley?"

The medic seemed the most offended by the question, huffing and puffing even more, and Beeper's optics cycled again; the femme's scowl returned in full force. "Of course we didn't hurt her. We were saving her from _you_."

I ignored all of them and kept my optics on Riley. She shrugged. "No."

I nodded; the Autobots hadn't hurt like I feared they would. I held my hand out to Beeper. His door-wings lowered, and he let out a buzz; but Riley stubbornly clung to my hand. "You need to go to the Autobot."

"No!"

"You need to go home, Riley."

"Not without you!"

I shook my head and tried to gently pry her from my fingers. She did her little squeal-growl at me and held on tighter. "Do you want your dad to worry about you?"

Riley winced at the question but continued to cling to me. "I'm not leaving you behind."

I used a finger to nudge the cap on the top of Riley's head. She huffed and pushed it back into place; I nudged it back down to cover her eyes. "You're just looking for an excuse not to go to school tomorrow."

"Am not!" Riley took off her hat to glare at me. Her eyes glittered, but she took a few deep breathes. I could feel her little heart beating erratically against my finger. "I'm not going to leave you; they might try to hurt you again. I'm not gonna let them do that to my only friend."

The Autobots were being painfully quiet at this point, and I almost thought they would be able to hear the spark inside my chest breaking. My vocalizer glitched when I tried to reply until I was forced to completely reboot it. In the meantime, I poked Riley in the side, knowing that she would flinch away and squeal, and dumped her into Beeper's hand the moment she lost her grip. "Here—it's almost past her bedtime."

"Jeffrey!"

I didn't look at Riley struggling in the Autobot's hand and rattled off the address I had memorized. Beeper released a low hum and tried to hold Riley in the palm of his hand like I had. Riley cursed at him and punched his hand. Beeper let loose a high-pitched whine, and I finally snapped. "Riley stop!"

I forced myself not to reach when I looked back down at Riley. Her face was splotched red now, and her cheeks were wet. She had broken the skin on her knuckles too. I vented hard and resisted the urge to reach out and poke her. I didn't need her latching onto my fingers again. "You're going home."

"But—"

"I'm serious." Riley snapped her mouth closed, and more tears spilled over. I looked away and refused to look at any of the Autobots. "Go home before your dad starts to worry."

"And what am I going to tell him when you're not there?"

I tried not to react when Riley's voice cracked—I really did. But I flinched; I flinched hard. Living with humans had made me soft, and it didn't help to be reminded that this little human was the first and only person to really care what happened to me.

Sometimes I wish that what the Decepticon command had said had been true; that Vehicons were just sparkless drones that came straight off of Shockwave's magical assembly line. At least then I wouldn't have to deal with the intense pain in my chest now.

"Just tell him someone stole me when you were in—what was it called?—KO Burger. Kids like to take good looking cars all the time. And I'm a good looking car, so that makes the story believable."

Riley didn't laugh like I had hoped she would. She slumped into the Beeper's hand and stared up at me with big brown eyes that glimmered with tears. I had to fully turn around on the berth I sat on to keep myself from snatching her back.

All I heard was Riley's sniffing until the telltale sounds of transformation cut it off. Beeper's engine growled, and he peeled out of the Autobot base. Neither of the remaining Autobots said a word, and I gripped the edge of the berth, waiting for whatever the Autobots had to throw at me now.

* * *

I have no idea how much time passed after Riley left. All I know is that I sat on the berth where I had onlined, fingers denting the edge, and waited. I waited long enough for the femme to claim she had to get back to her human and to learn that the medic liked to grumble to himself about everything. I waited long enough that I stopped flinching at every bang I heard and for my spark to only feel like it was being squeezed instead of viciously ripped out of my chest and then brutally stomped on the floor.

I waited long enough for my patience to finally thin and make me twist around on the berth to face the medic on the other side of the room. "What are you waiting for?"

He looked away from the console he had been grumbling at and frowned. "Excuse me?"

I waved my hands in front of me and found it only slightly hilarious that it made the medic flinch. Yes, fear my dainty claws medic. It's the least you can do for dragging this whole thing out! "Do it already!"

"Do what?"

I vented. "Don't play stupid. My human's not here to stop you anymore. Just be sure to make it quick. I'd prefer painless too, like a blast to the head or chest. I'd actually hate the rumors about you Autobots being merciful to be false."

Grumble-bot looked so confused that I actually laughed. It wasn't a really happy, "ha-ha" kinda laugh; more like a sarcastic, "ha!" kinda laugh. This whole situation was getting tiresome. "Why won't you just kill me and be done with it already?"

The medic jerked back against the console, optics brightening to a setting I hadn't thought possible. He stuttered over his next words, but I just sat on the berth and stared. Don't tell me he needed some kind of justification for killing me, like waiting for me to attack in order to claim self-defense. That didn't change the fact that the Autobots wanted me dead, and I wasn't about to give them their justified reason or some other slag.

Eventually, Grumble-bot calmed his stutters and slowly made his way towards me. He stopped just out of my reach and stared. "I have some questions that you're going to answer."

Ah, they wanted to interrogate me first. I can't believe I didn't figure that out on my own. "Fine, but I'll just go ahead and tell you that I don't know anything about what the Decepticons are doing. It's been almost a year now since I ran off."

Grumble-bot blinked and shifted his hands onto his hips. "Really?"

"Yep."

He hummed and shook his head. "Not the first question I planned to ask, but useful nonetheless. Why did you send away that girl?"

It was my turn to blink this time. "Because I didn't want her to watch you kill me."

I'm starting to get a kick out of surprising these Autobots. Their expressions were just priceless—bright optics, gapping mouth, the little twitch their heads do. I almost wished I had a camera. "Is that it?"

I decided to shrug even though his question didn't sound like he wanted it answered. "It really was getting close to her bedtime too."

That made his mouth snap shut, and a frown appeared. He shifted again to cross his arms over his chest. "Why aren't you fighting back? Shouldn't you be a little more determined to escape if we planned on killing you?"

I shrugged again. "Why bother? I'm functioning on fumes here, you've offlined all my weapons, and apparently I can't activate my T-cog."

"You're low Energon levels didn't stop you from attacking Bumblebee earlier."

"That was an accident!" Back was the surprised expression, but I only caught a glimpse of it before I covered my face with my hands. "There wasn't supposed to be enough charge to fire the fragging thing. Riley's told me that sometimes when I get nervous, I talk with my hands, but I don't realize it because I'm not paying attention to that. So apparently, whatever glitch causes that thought it would be a good idea to show how bad of an aim I really am to emphasize what I was saying."

I vented when I realized I was beginning to rant and dropped my hands. Grumble-bot didn't look so surprised anymore, but I couldn't figure out how he might have felt through his expression anymore. "Besides, where am I going to go now? You might not hurt Riley and her dad right now, but I can't take the chance of going back to them. I'm not going back to the 'Cons, and what's the point of striking it out on my own? I don't want to die, but I don't want to be alone either."

Grumble-bot hummed and took a step closer. I shifted on the berth and watched his hands; that's where his melee weapons were as far as I knew. Because for all my talk, when it came down to it, I'd probably fight back. I wouldn't stand a chance, but I also didn't like the thought of just lying still and taking a death blow.

Grumble-bot didn't pull out his blades though. He reached over to pick up a scanner on a platform beside the berth and pressed a few of the buttons on it. "When was the last time you had a proper refueling?"

…I don't know if I wanted to answer that. Because now I'm confused. What should it matter if the bot you're about to kill hasn't had a proper cube in forever? "Why?"

"Because your Energon levels are so low, they don't even register a reading on the majority of our equipment." Grumble-bot looked up from the scanner, and I couldn't help but shift under the critical look he gave me now. It was almost as if he was staring directly into circuitry without the need of medical scanner. "I scanned your body for Energon inhibitors and found none, which means—if you're not exaggerating the time you've been living with that human—we should have at least picked up on your signal during your first months on Earth. That also means you've been running blind this entire time."

"I can see perfectly well, thank you very much."

Grumble-bot paused and almost seemed to grin…if his frown returning to a neutral line counted as a sorta-grin. "Not _that_ type of blind. Your sensors would have been limited to only a small perimeter around you, which would explain why you and Arcee managed to live across from each other for a full week before she finally figured out what you were. She's not that happy about that, by the way."

Trust me, neither am I. Because the sexy two-wheeler I had been ogling for the past two weeks was an Autobot that I had run from before in order to avoid being cut up into pieces on the battlefield. She probably would've caught me had she shown off her alt-mode during those battles…

"And what are these parts the scanners picking up? Are those _human vehicle_ parts replacing your Energon lines?"

I straightened up on the berth. "Hey! Riley patched me up with what she had, and she did a damn good job doing it."

The medic grumbled something under his breath and threw the scanner down on the berth beside me. My fingers twitched with the urge to snatch it up and play with it, but I resisted and instead kept my optics on Grumble-bot. He walked around the berth, and I had to twist around in order to keep him in my sights.

He returned with a small cube and shoved it towards me. "Here. Take it slow, or your frame's likely to reject it after its been running on what little you've had for so long."

I took the cube without pause, but I could only stare at the contents. How long had it been since I had a proper cube of Energon? It seemed like forever since I had first started consuming raw Energon crystals to keep me going. The Energon in the cube wasn't even the right color; instead of the bright blue I remembered, it was an almost florescent shade of magenta. Not a shade of Energon I had ever seen before.

Grumble-bot seemed offended by my lack of enthusiasm. "Well? Go on—I don't make a habit of poisoning my medical grade."

"Why?"

I stared, and Grumble-bot huffed. "Because poison has a very negative effect with medical grade Energon, and a tiny green explosive is very obvious when attempting to offline a mech."

"Not that." Though, I appreciate your snark medic. It's not as deranged as Knock Out's but still pleasantly biting. "Why are even giving me Energon? I'm not going to attack and give you another reason to kill me."

Grumble-bot shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest again. "I'm a medic, and a medic's chief function is to care for those in need. Not kill them when they're defenseless. By no means does that mean I trust you; in fact, if you _do_ decide to attack, I won't hesitate fighting back. But as of four hours ago when you were dragged through that Ground Bridge offline and with a little human threatening to shove objects up all of our tailpipes, you're a prisoner of war. Unfortunately, I can't speak for all Autobot outposts, but here in Omega One, we still treat our prisoners of war with a level of decency."

Grumble-bot turned away and headed back to the console he had been grumbling at earlier. I clutched the Energon cube and felt the miniature field forming the cube crackle under my fingertips. "I'm just a Vehicon."

"And I'm just a medic." Grumble-bot halfway turned to stare back at me before returning to the console. "But if Optimus had been willing to give Starscream a chance, he would have done the same for a Vehicon willing to talk instead of fight."

I stared at the medic's back long enough for him to turn back around and glare at the cube still in my hand. I slowly lifted it towards my mask, and he nodded before he turned back around. I lowered the cube again and vented. I never had plans to be a prisoner of war, especially after defecting, but I suppose it was better than being dead. It would've been better if they had just left me alone and let me continue to live my carefree life.

"As a medic, I can also come over there and shove that cube down your intake if you refuse to consume it."

Scratch that—it would've been heck of a lot better if they had just minded their own business. Autobots just had to go and ruin everything, the no good do-gooders.

* * *

 **AN:** There we go! Jeffrey is now being held captive by the 'Bots. What kind of trouble is he going to manage to cook up while in their clutches?

Since it's about midnight my time, and I can't really think of a good question, I'm just going to stick to the generic "How did you guys like the chapter?" I never knew coming up for questions on each chapter would be so hard, and I'm only the third one XD

I'll see you guys in the next update! \^_^/


	4. The Woes of Prison Life

**AN:** I am so totally on a roll with updating XD

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter III

The Woes of Prison Life

* * *

Grumble-bot lied.

He totally poisoned that cube. How did I know that? Because a _normal_ cube of Energon wouldn't have knocked me out like that one. I took one sip of that thing, and the next thing I knew, I was laid out on my back with barely any strength to keep my processor online.

According to my chronometer, I didn't wake up until a couple of hours later. My visor slowly rebooted, and a dozen messages popped up on my HUD, welcoming me back to the land of the online. I dismissed them without reading any of them. I could only read "Warning! Low Energon: Refuel Moron" or "Maintenance Required: See the Red Demon of Death" so many times before going crazy.

Once all the messages were gone, I was left staring at the reinforced rock above my head. It was very boring, to say the least, and staring straight up at the ceiling was making my tank churn. I turned my head and found a pair of blue optics staring at me from across the room. Had an Autobot been staring at me the whole time I was out?

That was a little creepy…much creepier when I realized it wasn't Femme Fatale.

My visor blinked, and the optics turned away. "Shouldn't we at least have a pair of stasis cuffs on him? Not doubting your expertise, 'Ratch, but I've seen desperate mechs cause some real damage with just their bare hands."

I lifted my hands to stare at them while a muffled huff answered the Autobot's question. "I'm well aware of that, Bulkhead. But I'm also aware that he wouldn't even be fast enough to deal a death blow until his Energon reserves are above thirty percent. Even then, his frame has gone so long without proper fuel that it'll burn right through the first few cubes I give him as it acclimates back to a steady intake."

I don't know; I'd like to think that I could do some damage with these dainty claws of mine. I've never actually done it before…or really thought of doing it, but it's a thought. Maybe if I get really desperate in the future.

I took a second glance at the Autobot that had been staring at me and instantly dismissed the thought when I realized which Autobot it was. The Terrifying Green Tank of Terror (I think I'll call him "Tank" for short) stared back at me with narrowed optics and his huge arms laid on his massive chest.

With a sudden burst of energy, I rolled off the berth and winced when my head hit the floor. I heard some huffs and puffs from Grumble-bot and the loud scraping of metal from the other side of the berth. I sat up and huddled against the side of the berth.

I never thought I would ever wish to be in my cramped, smelly garage as much as I do now.

Something tapped against the top of my head, and I flinched away. Maybe if I ignored all of them, they would just go about their business. I could deal with this if they would just leave me alone…and not be reminded of how I totally dissed the walking Tank's paint job. I've seen that guy on the battlefield, and let's just say that no Vehicon had ever come back to talk about the guy's battle style.

A wrecking ball to the head tended to keep a mech from doing that.

Another poke, and I squeezed my arms around knees to keep from swatting at it. There was a deep chuckle from above me. "I take it back. I've never seen a 'Con look so pathetic before."

"Yes, yes, yes. Now get over here and help me lift this!"

There was one last poke, and Tank walked away. I stayed on the floor until I was assured from Grumble-bot's grumbling that the massive Autobot wasn't watching me anymore. I peeked over the berth and spotted the hunkering mass of Tank standing on the other side of the room. Grumble-bot's head was barely visible on a lower level by a tunnel.

I tapped my fingers against the top of the berth. I had never thought about what would happen if I had been captured by the Autobots. If there was one thing a Vehicon had to worry about, it wasn't being captured and held prisoner. I had forced myself to accept my fate after I had sent Riley away only to be dropped into a situation that was the exact opposite.

I don't even know what I'm supposed to do now! Lie on the berth and pretend they're not there? Be nosy and have my head knocked off? Try to sneak out and run for the rest of my life?

Yeah, none of that sounded any kinds of appealing.

I vented loud enough for Tank to turn around. I froze under his narrowed stare, but he only hummed and turned back to Grumble-bot. He pointed a thumb in my direction, and I slouched a little lower behind the berth. "Are we sure he's a 'Con? I've seen sparklings with bigger bearings than him."

My vocalizer crackled to life before I could control it. "I'm not a Decepticon!"

I instantly clicked it back off when Tank fully turned towards me, and Grumble-bot stood up to stare at me. I wanted the floor to open up underneath me and save me from my miserable life when Tank strode towards me. He stopped next to the berth and stared down at me. "And what makes you think we're just going to believe that."

My vocalizer clicked back on, and I wanted to kick myself even as I spoke. "To be honest, I'd think you were pretty dumb if you just trusted me like that. That'd be like me trusting you not to kill me when you're finally tired of wasting your resources on a supposed 'Con that doesn't have anything to offer you…but I can totally get you up to date on _La Mesa De Comedor_ if you're interested."

Tank just stared at me, and I swear I heard Grumble-bot sigh. I waited for Tank to turn me into a flat disk with one smash, but I jumped up to stand when he chuckled instead. "A Vehicon with an actual processor—you see something new every day. We're still putting the cuffs on him when he reaches thirty percent."

I rubbed my wrists. "But they itch."

I feel like I'm doing the impossible by making Tank chuckle _again_. I might seriously be ensuring my survival! Of course, that moment of confidence is immediately shattered when Tank looms over me with dark optics and an almost suffocating EM field. "That'll be the least of your worries if you do anything funny."

"Funny 'ha, ha' or funny 'crossing the invisible line between harmless into getting my face smashed in'?"

There was no laugh this time, and I felt my armor clamp down under his gaze. "Funny as in 'I'll flatten you before you even have time to react'."

My head bobs up and down, and he loomed over me a little longer before he backed away. I put a hand on my chest and felt my spark spin beneath it. I feel like that was the second time I've been so close to death in the span of only a few hours.

Grumble-bot suddenly appeared at Tank's side, and he scoffed. "Bulkhead, you'll send him into spark failure if you keep that up."

Tank's lower jaw dropped a little, but I was too busy leaning against the platform behind the berth. The sudden rush I had received when I first rolled off the berth was fading, and I was getting more "Refuel You Fragging Idiot" messages on my HUD. Grumble-bot had put some serious stuff in that cube if I was already feeling the effects of an empty tank.

"I thought Vehicons were just sparkless drones."

My vocalizer cracked from the snorting noise I attempted to make; that sounded so much better coming from Riley. "You and me both Tank. It took almost dying to figure it out."

I offlined my visor and lifted a hand to rub my head. This was really weird; I had survived on the bare minimum of Energon crystals for the past few months and had never felt this fatigued so quickly. Maybe the medic gave me their bad Energon instead of this fabled "medical grade."

Speaking of which, I was suddenly holding another magenta cube without realizing it and had a bright light shining directly into my visor. I lifted a hand to swat it away, but it kind of just fluttered at my side. The light vanished, and Grumble-bot frowned at me. "Your systems are burning through the Energon faster than they should be. What type of Energon have you been surviving on?"

I think my visor went out for a moment because Grumble-bot's frown deepened without me seeing the transition. "Crystals."

I should rename Grumble-bot to "Huffer" from all the huffing and puffing he did. " _Raw_ Energon? No wonder your systems are all over the place. You're lucky that consuming those crystals didn't leave your lines clogged."

My visor had a film of static over it now, but I could still see Grumble-bot's scowl clear as day as he snatched my magenta cube away. "I ran systems checks every day. Plus, Riley knew how to flush out any line that me problems."

Grumble-bot stomped back to where he had pulled out the Energon cube yesterday without a word, and Tank chuckled. "It's been a while since someone's made him angry enough to get the silent treatment. I almost feel bad for you, 'Con."

I didn't protest the affiliation this time and instead slowly slid down the wall. My tanks were only registering at 2% capacity; holy wow—I really was burning through that Energon. I shook my head and fumbled the cube that was shoved into my hands this time. This one looked more normal—an almost transparent blue.

"Low-grade Energon." I tilted my head back to see Grumble-bot hovering over me again. He still had that frown in place; I'm starting to think he's the kind of mech that if he ever smiled, the world would implode or something. "Medical grade would usually be the most efficient for situations like this because of the added minerals mixed in to it, but in your case, more minerals are a bad thing."

I lifted the cube, and my voice came out as static filled slur. "You did poison me!"

Grumble-bot's optics visibly rolled, and I just stared at them while Tank laughed again. I didn't know a mech could roll their optics like humans did! "I'll admit that my initial treatment of your diagnosis may have been flawed from lack of vital information, but for the last time, our Energon is not poisoned! Now, drink the low-grade or I _will_ shove it down your intake."

I shook my head. My vocalizer glitched, the "Make me" I had been intending to say dying with it. I might've offlined at that point.

* * *

The second round of onlining wasn't as bad as the first. I was instantly bombarded with messages this time, and my tank didn't churn in discomfort. The ceiling was just as boring, but I didn't think the Autobots would redecorate just for my sanity.

I slowly sat up on what I was beginning to officially claim as my berth and glanced around the room. I could only hear the familiar hum of equipment; a brief scan of the room confirmed the total lack of anyone else in the room.

I scratched a finial on the side of my head. My chronometer was spouting a bunch of nonsense when I accessed it, but that wasn't the confusing part. It was the fact that I didn't have a massive Autobot staring me down or even Grumble-bot grumbling on the other side of the room. Did Autobots make it a habit of leaving their prisoners completely unattended and fully functional?

I shook my head and scooted to the edge of the berth. I felt a tug on my left arm and looked down to find translucent tube sticking out from beneath my armor. I hesitated and carefully pulled the tube free, pinching shut the Energon line it had been inserted in.

When my feet hit the floor, I scanned the room again. From what I could see, there really wasn't much to it. A few raised platforms behind me, a few tunnels branching off in different directions, and a small set up of screens tucked in between said platforms. There were other containers stacked up against one wall, but that was hardly any less boring than the rest of the room.

I sat back down on the edge of the berth and vented. Now I get why the Autobots didn't even bother leaving a guard—there wasn't anything for me to do! I _could_ poke around at one of the consoles, but I wasn't dumb enough to try. With my luck, Femme Fatale would come walking out of one of those tunnels and shoot me just for standing in front of the screens.

Wi-Fi was blocked too, much to my despair. If I ever got a chance to log back into any of my games, I'd probably have angry messages for not playing. I wished I had stuck my gamepad into my sub-space, but I had never needed it outside of the garage until now. Heck, I'd settle for a can of paint or using those containers by the wall to build a tower.

Even when I was on the _Nemesis_ I had something to do!

I slumped on the berth and scanned the room for a third time. My spinal strut immediately straightened when I spotted the savior of my boredom. I jumped off the berth and awkwardly climbed over the railing of the two lowest platforms behind my berth until I stood chest level with the uppermost platform. I reached over the railing and delicately pressed the button on the TV with my fingertip.

I almost clapped my hands together when the TV pinged on and the screen flashed. If there was one thing the humans had invented that I enjoyed spending hours watching, it was television. From game shows, to reality shows, to badly scripted shows—humans had invented the ultimate device that provided hours of mind-numbing enjoyment.

But best of all were the Spanish soap operas. English ones were okay, but they didn't have the same… _spark_ as the Spanish ones. Riley's dad had been the one who had introduced them to me…well, indirectly introduced them at least. Riley had flipped out when she had noticed me watching the TV with them through the window.

The thought of Riley and her dad made my spark twist, so I focused on pressing the buttons on the TV. My hopes for finding the latest episode of _La Mesa De Comedor_ were brutally crushed as it became apparent that the only thing on was white noise. I reached up to tilt the two wires sticking out of the top of it and froze when the outline of an image appeared.

I delicately moved one wire. The image became clearer, and the white noise began to form words. With a few more tilts and fancy finger work, the image and sound became clear enough for me to understand, and I growled. "I don't wanna watch _As the Kitchen Sinks_! It's such a lame drama."

"What are you doing?"

I shrieked and lost my balance. The railing against my chest bent under my weight, and my hand knocked the TV stand over before my arm crushed the plank of wood on top of the cinderblocks in front of it. I stared at the destruction in front of me; I slowly stood up and turned around to face the voice.

Femme Fatale stood at the bottom of the platforms, a hard scowl firmly in place and hands on her rounded hips. I stared long enough for her optics to narrow and her lip to curl back. One hand twitched, and I was immediately paying more attention to it. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, 'Con, but I'm under orders from Ratchet not to shoot unless necessary. So, please, make my day."

I couldn't help it—I snorted at her words. "Could you sound a little more cliché?"

I scrambled back when a blaster was suddenly aimed towards me. Femme Fatale's expression never wavered even when I lifted my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! I've learned my lesson. Look—I'm even coming down."

I could feel the Autobot's gaze burning a hole into my helm as I stepped over the railings and down onto the bottom floor. I kept my hands up and moved with deliberate motions to show I wasn't going to try anything funny. I still got a blaster jabbed into my back, but that was better than a fist to the face.

I went to sit on my berth, but Femme Fatale abruptly grabbed my wrist and twisted me around. My vents closed, and I could feel my spark whirl from how close we stood, barely an inch gape between us. She glared up at me, and it wasn't until I felt a tingle of static that I tilted my head to stare at the wrist she had grabbed.

I just stared at where my wrist was now cuffed to the railing of the platform behind my berth. Femme Fatale was already moving by the time I regained my wits. "What—"

Femme Fatale peeled back the armor on my limp arm and jabbed the tube back into my arm. I yelped at the sudden sting, and she gave me a flat stare. "Really?"

"It was sudden and in a sensitive place!"

She reached out to adjust a bag of translucent blue Energon with the same flat expression. Not a word was said while we watched the Energon slowly trickle down the tube and disappear into my arm. I shook my head at the feeling of new Energon flowing through my lines and sat down on the edge of the berth. I tried to twitch the fingers on the arm that was stasis cuffed and barely felt any movement. "So…"

Femme Fatale didn't even look in my direction when she spun around on her heel. "The stasis cuffs are programed to shut down all of you motor functions if you attempt to hack the lock. It'll also ping one of us if a hack is attempted. Either way, I wouldn't try."

I stared at the blue femme's back and pulled against the railing. Either they had good stasis cuffs or I was super weak because the railing didn't even budge. "Hold on! You're just going to leave me here alone?"

This time, she did turn around, and her scowl made me stop struggling. "All of us have more important things to do than stand around and entertain a drone. So either be a good prisoner and cooperate like Ratchet said you would or give me my reason to knock your head off this time."

I scooted along the berth to be closer to the wall. The tube in my arm tugged a little, but I didn't shift my position much more. "Okay, you've made your point. Death is something I tend to avoid whenever possible."

She nodded and continued towards the tunnel she had been walking towards. She transformed at the entrance of it, and the growl of her engine made the squeal of her tires more bearable. I watched her until she turned a corner out of my sight and vented, tugging on my numb arm. I glanced around the room and tugged again.

Being a prisoner sucked a lot more than I originally thought it would.

* * *

"All…most…there!"

The little disposable cube slipped out from under the tip of my foot and slid a fraction of an inch further away. I let my frame go limp and loudly cursed the plastic cube. "You get the frag over here, you dirty, mother-fragging piece of synthetic slag!"

"Ahem!"

I froze, sprawled out on the floor with one arm still attached to the railing and the other gripping the berth for added leverage. I muted my vocalizer and listened to the sound of scuffing footsteps until Grumble-bot appeared around the edge of my berth. He stopped, optics blinking and mouth slightly open, and gestured down at me with one hand. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Now be a good warden and ignore the prisoner you've left alone for hours!

Grumble-bot rolled his optics and bent down to pick up the cube. I stared in abject horror as he crushed it between his fingers and tossed it towards a part of the room that I couldn't see. No! Plastic Cube—my one and only friend during this time of harsh isolation. I shall avenge you!

…well, not really, but I might give you a proper burial if I remember.

Grumble-bot held out a hand, but I pulled myself up with the help of the berth. He huffed (yep, Huffer would've totally been a better name) and whipped out a scanner from nowhere. I endured the slight tingle of a medical scan and jiggled my stiff arm. "So…"

"Not exactly how I pictured Arcee handling you." The medical scan ended, and Grumble-bot tapped the scanner. "Thought I'd return to find you banged up again."

"She stabbed me." I wiggled my arm, and the stasis cuffs clanked against the railing. "And put me in itchy cuffs."

"She could have cut off your limbs and left you face down on the berth." Grumble-bot reached towards me and pulled out the tube in my arm. A quick patch left me wondering if there had ever been a tube there. "I only told her to be sure you couldn't walk freely around the base when you finally onlined."

"Well, nice to know she's got some restraint."

"Only when there's more important things to handle." Grumble-bot's perpetual frown deepened as he read his scanner. "It's seems like your systems have finally stabilized thanks to the Energon drip, but your chronometer didn't reset correctly."

"No, no it did not. And I can't Google a world clock because there's no Wi-Fi."

"Primus forbid you don't have Wi-Fi." Grumble-bot fiddled with the scanner and pulled out a slim cord from the side of it. "Open a port so I can reset it."

"Nope."

The cord paused halfway to me, and I tilted back on the berth. Grumble-bot didn't look very happy, but he hasn't looked happy since I got here. "Excuse me?"

I shook my head. "You're not connecting to my processer in any way."

"I'm a medic—"

"I'm your prisoner."

Stare off—engaged. I refused to let my visor so much as flicker, but Grumble-bot's glare was on point. Knock Out would totally benefit from lessons from this mech. The Autobot medic invoked a more subtle fear than when Knock Out swung around his saw. .

I wasn't backing down though. There was no way I was letting anyone—Autobot, Decepticon, or human—have access to my processor. I've seen what happened to Decepticons—guys that weren't _Vehicons_ —when they came back from having their heads hacked by Shockwave. I wasn't taking any chances in becoming a mindless drone again.

There was a chime from the other side of the room, and I jumped at the sound. Grumble-bot broke off the staring contest and hurried over to the consoles I had seen earlier. I tried to lean far enough to see him, but the stasis cuffs cut me off just short of seeing beyond the staircase.

"Arcee?"

"Ratchet!" I changed tactics and shuffled towards the railing. I bet I could get over it with the help of the berth… "We have a situation."

"Optimus?"

"No." I paused attempting to get my leg up high enough to jump over the railing. Even I could hear the change in pitch in the femme's voice, and I hadn't even heard her speak but two times. "It's Bumblebee."

"Bumblebee?"

"He's been…taken hostage. They're on route to the base right now."

"Hostage?" I managed to get a foot over the railing, but I was having trouble actually getting the rest of my leg over. Plus, the stasis cuff was being very uncooperative with me. "And on his way here? Bumblebee would never—"

"You'll understand when they get there. I'm following right behind. Arcee, out."

There was a click, and I quickly fell back onto the berth when I heard Grumble-bot move. I came down too quickly and grunted when my arm in the stasis cuff pulled taut. I sucked it in when Grumble-bot could see me.

He barely glanced in my direction. "What is this nonsense? We don't have time for any of this! The Decepticons are doing who knows what to Optimus; we don't have enough energy to 'super-charge' the Ground Bridge; and now Bumblebee has apparently forgotten all of his training and is bringing the enemy to our base!"

I leaned back when Grumble-bot finally glanced over at me. His optics were a darker shade now, and it reminded me of how Tank and Femme Fatale had stared at me. He stomped towards me, and I scooted back on the berth as far as I could.

His finger shook as he pointed to me. "If I figure out you had anything to do with this…"

I instantly offlined my vocalizer. Now wasn't the time to get smart about the Autobot's dramatic change in tone. What happened to "oh, I'm a medic; I don't hurt damsels in distress"? I will admit that I'm probably a lot better off than I was when he first said that, seeing as I wasn't getting any messages about being low on Energon, but that still didn't change what he said.

We both turned towards the tunnel Femme Fatale had exited earlier when the sound of a car engine echoed from it. The car engine grew louder until a yellow and black striped Camaro swerved out of it. Beeper stopped with a little shriek of tires.

Then he just sat there. I tilted my head to the side to get a better view behind him. I thought the Femme Fatale had said he had been taken hostage. Grumble-bot seemed to have the same confusion because he took a small step toward Beeper. "Bumblebee?"

The driver's door flew open, and a human head popped out from over the door. An orange and black object was pointed towards Grumble-bot, but I was too busy trying not to fall off the berth. "Give me Jeffrey, and nobody gets hurt."

I'm going to kill her—I'm seriously going to kill her. Though I will admit that I can't help but feel a little pride that Riley had been able to take an Autobot hostage. I trained her so well.

* * *

 **AN:** So...that happened XD While Jeff is wallowing in prison life, Riley's being a little BA and apparently taking Autobots hostage. I just loved writing that short little scene XP

So, new chapter, new question. Question for this chapter centers around the story's choice of POV since first person isn't something I write in very often: Do you guys enjoy having Jeffrey narrate? Or is he too scatterbrained at times that it completely takes you out of the story?

Until the next update :D


	5. The Human Factor

**AN:** Sorry about missing last week's update! Longer note's at the bottom to explain all of that and how updating is going to look for the next few months.

Also thanks to RenaTamer for leaving a review for chapter 3 that made me giggle and begged to have some type of mention XD

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter IV

The Human Factor  
(AKA Riley Rules and Jeffrey Drools)

* * *

How do you respond when a little human comes riding up in an Autobot threatening physical harm on anyone who gets in her way just to save you from your apparent doom?

Obviously, you fall to your knees in gratitude and then help said little human in performing a hostile takeover before rolling merrily off into the sunset. _However_ , I think it's well-established that I am not the sharpest tool in the toolbox. So, I respond accordingly.

"Riley, what the frag are you doing here? When I said go home, I meant go home and _stay_ home—not go warrior princess and get into more trouble."

Yep, not the sharpest tool indeed.

Riley scowled at me, though she did a good job keeping Grumble-bot in one place with her…weapon of choice. "Is that how you're going to treat me after three days of torture? I'll think twice about buffing out those scratches in your paint now."

My visor winked. "It's been three days already?"

I almost missed the stunned expression on Riley's face as I checked my chronometer. Nope, still telling me nonsense. I shifted from my internal analysis to find Riley kicking the interior of Beeper's alt-mode. "You lied to me! You said you hadn't hurt him! Now, I'm really going to scratch your paint."

Beeper released a whining beep, and the door on his other side swung open. A tuft of brown hair peeked out from above the door before it closed and revealed a little human with little frames over his eyes. "Bumblebee swears they didn't hurt him, Riley! Ratchet just had to put him in medical stasis so he could readjust to having refined Energon."

"What is the meaning of this!" We all turned to Grumble-bot as one. Whatever shock and concern he had expressed when Beeper arrived was gone, and the angry scowl was firmly back in place. "Why did you bring the children back here?"

Riley yelped, and I jerked against the stasis cuffs when she stumbled to the side. She regained her balance just as Beeper transformed, and she was left shifting her weapon from one Autobot to another.

Little Glasses slowly approached her with raised hands while Beeper began beeping to Grumble-bot. "It's all right, Riley. I told you none of the Autobots are going to hurt us."

Riley snorted, still glancing between the Autobots. Grumble-bot huffed, and Beeper rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, right. Like I'm going to believe that after they just attacked my friend."

"It doesn't matter what she said!" Grumble-bot turned to point at me. I waved when the attention was redirected at me. "We don't know what the Vehicon is capable of, and it would be foolish to put the children at that type of risk! He could easily grab one of them and use them as a bargaining tool to escape."

Riley stomped her foot, and I settled back on the berth. Now that the initial shock had worn off, this was starting to get interesting. "For the last time, Jeffrey wouldn't hurt a fly! He has a pet cat, for frag's sake."

I hummed above Grumble-bot's sputters. "Speaking of which, have you been feeding Furball?"

"Yes, I've been feeding your dumb cat."

"Riley! You're not supposed to feed it! What if it stops going after the squirrels?"

"What! Then why did you make me spend my allowance on cat food?"

"Like you were spending it on anything better."

Riley growled and stomped towards me. I shifted on my berth with excitement. How I had I missed actually conversing with someone else! Autobots were the lamest conversationalists.

But Riley was intersected halfway to me. I heard the railing creak behind him as I pulled against the stasis cuff. Riley yelped and beat her fist against the hand that had snatched her up. Grumble-bot only sighed. "This is getting out of hand. Bumblebee, take the children—yowch!"

I flung myself forward without a second thought. Riley shrieked and flailed in the air, and I barely felt the impact of the floor as I caught her on the very tips of my fingers. She was breathing hard, but that didn't keep her from pointing her orange and black weapon at the stunned medic. "Next time I'll put a nail right in your optic!"

I vented and knocked my face against the ground. I could feel Riley shift in my hands, and I curled my fingers to keep her from escaping. "Riley, what made it sound like a good idea to use a nail gun against an Autobot?"

"It was the only thing I could find in all of my dad's junk!"

I vented again and was surprised to hear the sound of laughter mixed in with Grumble-bot's curses. Glasses still stood next to Beeper, and he laughed long enough to make Beeper let loose a little warble. "He really is exactly how you described him. I can see why you threatened Bumblebee with flat tires and scratched paint now."

Riley shifted in my hand to dig around in the pocket of her baggy jeans. I let my face drop back onto the floor after seeing what she pulled out. "I still have my potato to shove up his tailpipe too!"

More laughter and, if I was starting to get the jist of Beeper's lingo, more embarrassed warbles sounded. I sat up when the sound of a high powered engine reached my audials, and Femme Fatale swerved around the bend of the tunnel behind Beeper. She hopped into the air and flawlessly transformed to land in a crouch, blasters already perfectly aimed at my head.

She looked so fierce and poised that I couldn't look away from her even as her optics bore a hole straight through my head. Her optics only brightened a smidge when she noticed my location. "What's the 'Con doing out of the stasis cuffs?"

I shifted Riley to one hand and twisted the wrist that had been cuffed. I lifted it to show the Autobots. "Technically, I'm still cuffed…but you might wanna reinforce the railings the next time you use them."

The only one to find my statement funny was Glasses, who chuckled and wiped away the tears that began to accumulate under his eyes. Grumble-bot was too busy rubbing his head, and Beeper just glanced back and forth between me and Femme Fatale. Riley's scowl nearly matched said femme's. "He should've never been cuffed to begin with! He surrendered without a fight even after _you_ beat him up."

"Sorry, but I doubt a _child_ would fully understand military protocols."

Riley released a squealy-growl that was more growl than squeal, and I instinctively put her behind my back. She protested with a few whacks to my back with her nail gun, but I wasn't about to risk a throw down with the Autobots because Riley let her anger get the best of her. "Okay! Obviously there have been a few misunderstandings all around, one of which is my human thinking she could risk her life to save me."

"I knew you wouldn't do anything but whine about missing your soap operas!"

"I did not!"

"That's worse! It means you didn't do anything."

I shook my head to keep from retaliating. Beeper beeped something to get the other Autobots' attentions, and Glasses seemed very interested in what the mech was…beeping. The little human nodded at one particular pattern of whirs and beeps. "Bumblebee's right! Riley treats the Vehicon just like me, Jack, and Miko treat you guys. Besides, the Decepticons have never shown any interest in humans unless you count anyone they think is connected to the Autobots or in their way. Why go undercover with a family that had absolutely no connection to us?"

Grumble-bot continued to rub his head, but now he was grumbling under his breath. Femme Fatale still hadn't budged. "That doesn't make him any less dangerous."

"Of course not." A high-pitched whirr escaped Beeper, and he reached down to grab his human when Glasses ran towards me. I sat perfectly still when Glasses reached me, and he patted me on the knee. "But I've seen other Vehicons too. His frame may be Vehicon, but he looks _totally_ different, not to mention the fact that he just _saved_ a human instead of letting her crash to the ground from Ratchet's hand. If you guys would stop and listen to what Riley's told me in the past three days, you'd see that he has nothing to do with the 'Cons anymore."

Riley stopped wiggling and growling in my hand, so I took that as a sign that she had calmed down and brought her out from behind my back. I lowered my hand down beside Glasses and waited for her to hop down and stand beside him. Other than that, I sat perfectly still and watched the Autobots. Beeper had his optics on Glasses; Femme Fatale had her optics on me; and Grumble-bot rubbed his head and grumbled. At least the Tank wasn't here to add to the tension.

The console across the room chimed. Four blasters were instantly focused on me when I jumped at the noise, but Grumble-bot hurried towards the set up without a glance towards me. I glanced between Beeper and Femme Fatale but listened to the voice that came through the speakers.

"Ratchet!"

"Go ahead, Agent Fowler."

Glasses moved, and he headed towards the nearest set of stairs connected to the platforms. I nudged Riley after him, if only to get her out of the way in case the Autobots became too jumpy. She glared at me but followed the little human.

"We've got a situation. We lost contact with one of our bases, and from the sounds of it, the Decepticons are behind it."

I turned towards Grumble-bot and tilted my head at the image of a dark skinned human flickering on the largest screen. He looked really familiar for some reason…maybe it was the hair. Yeah, definitely the hair.

I shook my head and focused on Femme Fatale. Her optics narrowed, but neither of her blasters wavered. I tilted my head from side to side, and she seemed to grow even more disgruntled as her optics narrowed to mere slits.

If she wasn't so scary, this would totally be hilarious.

"Arcee!"

We both turned towards Grumble-bot. The human on the screen was gone now, but Grumble-bot was still facing the console. He pulled down a lever near the console set up, and I jumped again when a whirl of green, purple, and blue light appeared in the tunnel directly across from the console.

Beeper beeped, and Femme Fatale frowned. "We can handle the 'Cons, but I don't feel comfortable leaving one behind with even one of the kids."

"I'll handle it." Grumble-bot waved towards the Ground Bridge when the femme opened her mouth. "We don't have time to argue! I'll Bridge you and Bumblebee to the base and then Bulkhead if he's needed. We're not in a position right now to allow the Decepticons obtain what they're after for any reason."

Beeper beeped again, and I turned at the sound of Glasses' voice. "Yeah, maybe we'll find some clue as to what the Decepticons have done to Optimus."

Something flashed too fast across Femme Fatale's face for me to even begin interpreting it, but her blaster transformed back into a hand. She sent me one more glare and turned to Beeper. "Let's go."

Beeper whirred, and they disappeared through the Ground Bridge. I began to stand as Grumble-bot lifted the lever. Riley stood at the railing of the platform I had forced her towards, staring wide eyed at where the Ground Bridge had been. I snickered and was about to poke her out of her stupor when my arm was snatched to the side.

"Obviously, this is useless now." Grumble-bot snapped the stasis cuffs off. I jumped at the sudden jolt of feeling I received and flexed my hand to get rid of the tingling that was left behind.

Grumble-bot turned the cuffs in his hands, and I was surprised that on closer inspection, the cuff that had been attached to the railing was dented beyond repair. He tossed it onto the berth and sent me a narrowed glare. "Don't think that means you're free to do as you please. All of your weapons have been offlined, and I placed a tracker in your armor that will go off if you leave this room without authorization. It will also send a high EM pulse through your hardware if I activate it. Meaning, if you even try to attack or harm the children in any way, I'll put your down with only a flick of my finger."

I shuddered and self-consciously patted my armguard. The thought of something like that under my armor almost made me regret having broken the stasis cuffs. Of course, I didn't have long to contemplate my new fate before a huff distracted me. "I'm starting to feel _really_ insulted that no one is listening to me. Jeffrey isn't going to hurt anyone, and if he does, I'll be the first to send him through a car wash."

I shuddered even harder. EM pulse versus Car Wash—I'd think I'd rather be rendered unconscious for a brief period of time than suffer wet spots for eternity.

"Don't worry, Riley." Glasses smiled beside her before he pushed away from the railing and headed towards the other end of the platform. "It takes Ratchet a little while to warm up to new people, but he'll start listening eventually."

Grumble-bot huffed and puffed and moved back to the consoles with a minimum amount of his daily grumbling. I waited until his back was fully towards me (though I did notice that one of the dark computer screens gave Grumble-bot a perfect reflection of the room behind him) before walking beside Riley to where her new friend now stood. He stood in front of where the TV set up still sat in disarray, and I almost felt like whistling an innocent tune when he picked up one of the controllers that had been crushed. "What happened to our game station?"

Riley glared at me when I did start whistling, and I twiddled my thumbs under their judgmental stares. "The scary femme did it."

* * *

I carefully pushed the broken cinderblocks into the trash pile beside Riley and picked up the next thing she pointed at. Riley had been wholly unsympathetic at my cries of injustice and woes of my prison life. She had sent me to work cleaning up the mess I had inadvertently created and made Glasses stand beside her and watch when he had attempted to help.

I vented and placed the TV upright on the unharmed TV stand. " _Riley_."

" _Jeffrey_." I vented again and slumped against the railing still perfectly dinted in the shape of my chest. Riley just pointed at an upturned chair. "You know the rules. You make a mess, you clean it up."

"But it wasn't even my fault!" I fixed the chair and went ahead and picked up the last bits of cinderblock chips. I deposited it all into the trash pile. "This isn't even my garage."

"Neither is a street corner, but people still get fined for leaving their trash on the ground."

I stopped and fully turned my visor to face her. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest and tiny foot tapping against the ground. Glasses lifted a hand to adjust his namesake but went back to twisting his fingers afterwards. "What does a street corner have to do with any of this?"

"It—you know what? I don't need to explain." Riley pointed at the crushed slab of wood, and I moved it without complaint. "Just clean up. Respect the space you're being forced to live in against your will; own up to breaking other people's stuff. Be a man, Jeffrey."

"You sound like your dad when he's talking to a kid at his garage."

Riley released a gush of air through her nose, and Glasses gave me a small smile. I innocently tapped my fingers against the edge of the platform and nodded to the now clean little area. "Done."

I hunched down to balance my chin on the platform. Riley walked around to inspect the area; she nodded after staring at the TV and collapsed onto the couch that had miraculously survived being crushed. She patted the spot beside her, and Glasses joined her, albeit awkwardly wiggling in his spot when Riley fully turned around to face me.

She patted the side of my face and squealed when I vented on her. I turned slightly to see Grumble-bot look up from his console before returning to it. "So, did you spend three days solely planning my rescue? Because if you did, we need to talk about brainstorming better plans. And better executions because that was a little pathetic. Style points for taking the Autobot hostage though."

Riley punched the same spot she had patted and hissed afterwards, shaking her hand and flexing her fingers. I reached up and used the tip of my finger to angle her hand and stare at the dirty bandages covering her knuckles. "Your dad didn't freak about your hands, did he?"

"Yeah, but only because I broke the nose of the a-hole living across from us."

I lifted my head off the floor to get a better view of Riley's face. She scowled, and her fists clenched and unclenched. "You did _what_?"

"She did it right in front of us too." Glasses ducked his head when I turned to him and messed with his glasses again. "We were hanging out at Jack's—waiting for the 'bots to tell us what was going on—when Bumblebee pulled up and let Riley out. Jack asked if she and her dad would be okay since the Autobots had handled…well…you, and she had him on the ground before we even realized what was happening."

"It felt good too." Riley punched the bandaged hand into the palm of the other, and I shook my head. "I had already been planning on digging out a bat from the garage and going at the Camaro's hood, but it was a lot more fulfilling to just wail on someone before dad pulled me off."

I kept shaking my head and almost felt compelled to pull Glasses away from my own human. "Riley, you don't just beat people up."

"Why not? It was him and his dumb bike's fault that you got taken away. If they had just minded their business—"

"But that doesn't make it right!" Riley stopped and stared up at me with wide eyes; even Glasses looked surprise, and I didn't even want to find out why I couldn't hear Grumble-bot working at his console anymore. I shook my head and rubbed one hand along the backside of it. "You don't…look. I spent my entire life with the 'Cons doing nothing but fighting for no reason. That's the whole reason we're in the middle of this mess right now. It doesn't solve anything—just makes things worse. So it doesn't matter how angry or annoyed or whatever you get, you don't beat people up unless they're coming after you."

"I wasn't about to just let them get away with taking you!"

"And I'm happy you care enough about me to do that." I vented at the confusion on Riley's face now. "But don't do that ever again. Use your head in situations like that instead of being controlled by your emotions. It's all right to be angry at the Autobots, but that kid literally had nothing to do with any of this...and if you're going after the Autobots, find something a little deadlier than a nail gun. Or better yet, just don't go after anything ten times bigger than you. Ever."

Riley slouched into the couch, but Glasses fully turned towards me and stared with big eyes. "You really are different from all the other Vehicons."

"I've just been told that my sass levels are above average." Riley snorted. "But that's moot point. Riley knocked your friend out—why'd you agree to help her take your 'bot hostage?"

"That wasn't really intended." He turned to Riley, and she slouched further into the couch. "Bumblebee was picking me up from school when Riley jumped in front of him. I'm pretty sure everyone from school her thinks she's crazy for pulling a nail gun out of her bag to threaten a car."

Glasses laughed, and I snickered along with him at the image. Riley muttered something under her breathe that we ignored. "I've never seen Bumblebee so speechless before! I think he might've rolled away quietly if I hadn't told him to just listen to what she had to say."

I reached out and poked Riley in the side. She squealed, and I totally ignored the sound of Grumble-bot quickly twisting around to face us. "See? That's why we use our head and not our emotions. But that doesn't fully answer my question, Glasses. Why'd you help Riley after she knocked your friend out?"

"I was curious as to why she'd just do that out of the blue, and after Bumblebee told me why we weren't allowed in the base anymore, I got even more curious." Glasses shrugged. "She told me everything—how she fixed you up, how you've been living with her, that you do nothing but watch TV and play video games—and it just reminded me of how we hang out with the Autobots. I haven't seen or heard of any Decepticons that would do that kind of that stuff."

He paused and glanced at Riley. "Plus, Jack wanted to know why you punched him too. You weren't really that willing to talk to him, and Miko's still being talked down from trying to get even, so it kinda fell on me to figure it out."

I vented and poked Riley again. She must have been feeling a little better because she swatted at my hand instead of slouching complacently. "No more being a delinquent."

"I make no promises."

"I'll tell your dad."

"You wouldn't dare."

I went to retort when the stupid console did its stupid chiming again. I didn't jump this time though; maybe I was starting to get used to all the noises of the base. Grumble-bot took one look at the console and activated the Ground Bridge. Three Autobots came walking in, Beeper holding his shoulder and leaning on Femme Fatale while Tank stomped behind them.

Glasses jumped from the couch and ran towards the gap of missing railing above my berth where Beeper was being dropped off and already scanned by Grumble-bot. Me and Riley stayed in our spots, just watching the Autobots.

"Bumblebee!" Beeper looked up at Glasses and cycled his optics. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"Lucky shot," Tank answered. Beeper still did his little series of beeps, and I'm seriously contemplating asking for a data-pack for the Autobot's weird language. If a human kid knew it, then I should be allowed to understand too. "One of the 'Cons used a jeep full of humans as a shield and shot him before 'Cee could take him out, up close and personal."

"So, it was the Decepticons." Glasses stepped closer to the edge of the platform, and I tilted my head when Grumble-bot moved to the other side of Beeper to be closer to the human. Something smacked against the side of my side, and I glanced down to see Riley staring at me with narrowed eyes. I shrugged, and she shook her head. "Did you find Optimus?"

The room became deathly quiet. I tilted my head again, and Riley's second slap was loud enough to draw all of the attention towards us. I pointed at Riley. "She did it."

"What's the 'Con doing out of his cuffs?" I lifted my hands in surrender when Tank took a threatening step towards me. Riley made a noise in the back of her throat and sat up on her knees to glare at the Autobots. Tank's optics brightened. "And when did we get another kid?"

"Riley is Jeffrey's friend."

I nodded at Glasses' explanation. Yes, she was my human, and now that I know she's not going to sit complacently at home and I apparently wasn't scheduled to die any time soon, I am going to keep her. Tank was still confused though. "Jeffrey?"

"The Vehicon."

I straightened my spinal strut and stared straight back at Tank. That lasted a grand total of .5 seconds before I looked away. "What kind of name is Jeffrey?"

"A very upstanding and dignified and _individual_ name." I took a step back and slouched back down beside Riley because she is my human, and I can decide to make her my spokesperson if I so please. "And I'll flatten your tires if you even _think_ of hurting him like your buddies did."

I scrambled to shut Riley up, but Tank chuckled. I froze when Femme Fatale turned a glare towards me. "Miko's going to like you."

"They've already met." Glasses left it at that. He leaned forward a little more, and I was tempted to picked him up and put him on the berth next to Beeper. It was kind of obvious that was where he wanted to be, but none of the Autobots seemed concerned about it. "But what about Optimus?"

Any humor from Tank was quickly wiped away, and he stood as serious as Femme Fatale. "Nothing."

Beeper's kibble drooped with a beep, and Femme Fatale scowled at the floor. I shifted from one foot to another in the following silence. I waited until Grumble-bot grumbled for Beeper to get up, and the Autobots moved to do whatever it is they do, which was apparently glaring at me and/or trying to convince the humans not to stand too close to me.

Riley wasn't very amused by Beeper's little gestures to join him on the other side of the platform with Glasses. "I'm staying right here with Jeffrey because he's not dangerous or planning to hurt me in any way, and if you're not willing to give him a chance, then I'm at least going to make sure he doesn't let you walk all over him because he doesn't want to seem threatening to anybody."

I tapped the brim of Riley's cap and snickered at her squeal when it covered her eyes. "You're like Furball going against the neighbor's dog."

"Furball wins every time too."

I nodded and extended my hand without a second thought when Riley stood up on the couch and leaned towards me. She sat cross-legged in the palm of my hand and glared at Femme Fatale and Tank, who watched from across the room next to Grumble-bot. Beeper whirred, and Glasses interpreted.

"You've gotta understand, Riley. Jeffrey might not seem a threat to you, but for the Autobots, he looks like any other enemy they've been forced to fight for a long time." Beeper let loose some complicated strand of beeps, whirrs, and buzzes. I just stared as Glasses interpreted again without pause. "Optimus would always give a mech the benefit of the doubt, but there just hasn't been one that's actually been sincere."

Glasses paused, looked to Beeper, and continued. "They're risking a lot by letting Jeffrey stay in the base because of how hard you argued for him, and they know that Optimus would have given him a chance. But they're not willing to risk the chance that this _is_ another ploy to spy on them or something. Jeffrey seems to be doing a lot to prove his changed, but it's going to take more than just three days for the Autobots to be convinced of it."

Riley huffed, but I nodded. For a Vehicon that had been resigned to death, this was a lot more than I had ever hoped to receive in the event that I had ever been caught by either Autobot or Decepticon. I'm pretty sure Starscream wouldn't have hesitated to order me offline if he had ever learned a Vehicon had jumped ship under his command. I was never sure about the Autobot's Prime, but best case scenario had always been a quick death.

I tilted my head towards Beeper. "You've mentioned the Prime a lot, but where is he? And why would the Decepticons know where he is instead of his team?"

You know how there's always this one awkward person in a group that somehow manages to exude his awkwardness into the very atmosphere of the room and make everyone else silently judge him until the end of days?

I am that one person. If I wasn't holding Riley, I think I would have been offlined by just the glares I received. Or knocked out by the two Autobots that glared at me from across the room. Note to self: Beeper may be the only one I can trust right now.

All of the Autobots stared at me long enough that I fingers twitched to hide Riley. "Okay, never mind. Touchy subject—just pretend the Vehicon in the room never opened his big mouth."

Beeper did his beeping, but Tank cut him off with a grunt. "He's just playing dumb now. Like Megatron wouldn't have bragged about it on every Decepticon channel broadcasting."

Riley squealed and fell over in my hand when I jerked her up to my chest. My fingers completely curled around her tiny body, and every joint in my frame locked up. "Megatron? But Knock Out said he was dead! I mean, they had him in stasis, but I always heard Starscream and Knock Out talking about offlining him when I went to the med-bay—that he was beyond repair."

I turned away from the Autobots and paced towards my berth. Riley grabbed onto my finger as I made a sharp turn and headed back towards where I had been standing by the platform. "This is worse than I thought it was! It's one thing to walk out on Starscream, but a completely other thing with Megatron. Soundwave actually _tells_ Megatron stuff. Megatron doesn't take deserting very well—he put together an entire team of scary mechs just to track down Decepticons who have deserted! He'll string me up by the spark casing as an example to all the other Vehicons!"

There was a sudden bite of pain at my wrist, and I yelped and jerked in response to it. Someone grabbed the back of my neck and lifted me off the ground. My fingers were pried open, and I kicked at the Autobot that pulled Riley from my hands.

Femme Fatale didn't take the assault very well and punched the thin plating on my side. She released a startled yelp similar to mine a second later, and Riley tumbled from one of her hands to another. Riley scowled at the femme and reached out to pull at the thin wires hidden in the slender junction between the armguard and wrist joint of every frame.

I went limp and hovered in the air in Tank's hand. "Riley, stop that."

Riley managed to wiggle her fingers through the gap and grab the wires before Femme Fatale could juggle her back to the other hand with a scowl. "Put me down!"

Despite Riley's continued efforts to pull on her wires, Femme Fatale was very careful with dumping my human onto the couch. Riley scowled at her, and the femme seemed to take a second to match her scowl before turning back towards my hanging frame. "You just about squished the human you're supposedly attached to!"

My armor flared out without me thinking, and I stiffened in Tank's hand. "I would never do that!"

"Beg to differ, 'Con." I yelped as I was tossed onto the berth beside us and scrambled to keep from rolling off the side off the other side. Tank loomed over me with dark blue optics. "Why do you think she had to yank of your wires to get free?"

"I did it to make him stop freaking out!" Riley waved her hand in an attempt to get their attention, but the only one I saw turn to her was Glasses. Beeper stood in the same place he had been and seemed to be watching everyone else. "He was having some sort of panic attack or something."

"We don't have 'panic attacks'." I flinched at Grumble-bot's voice and shuffled around on the berth until all the Autobots were in my line of sight. He stood opposite of Tank and rubbed his chin with one hand. "But it doesn't take a genius to recognize genuine panic. How long did you say it's been since you defected from the Decepticons?"

"We're just going to take his word on it now?" Femme Fatale took a stance that I was beginning to recognize as the universal "Unhappy Female" stance: arms crossed over her chest, hips tilted at a sharp angle, and the ever present scowl of disapproval. Funny how Riley looked exactly the same when she got annoyed. "Like you said earlier, we're not in a position to let the Decepticons get the upper hand on us."

One stilted beep came from Beeper, and Tank frowned. "I don't know, 'Bee. From what I've seen, it's not that hard for a Vehicon to be out of the loop on some things. We'll need a little more than _that_."

Beeper shook his head, and I zoned out for his beeping tirade. Beeping really wasn't that interesting if you didn't know the difference between "beep-beep-boop" and "boop-beep-boop." Riley seemed just as disinterested because she slapped her hands against the back of the couch to get their attention. "All right—I've had about enough of this! What does Jeffrey have to do get you to stop questioning every little thing he does?

"Short of giving us Megatron's head on a platter?" Femme Fatale's eyes skimmed me from head to toe, and I forced myself to sit up straight. She shook her head. "Nothing."

Beeper buzzed and gestured with his hands, his kibble fluttering behind him. Tank grunted again and fully turned to the yellow Autobot. "Why are you trying to defend the guy so much, 'Bee? He took a dirty shot at you!"

Beeper shook his head with a whirr, but it was Glasses who saved us lesser beings with translation issues. "If he was just trying to fool us about him not being a Decepticon, he wouldn't have sent Riley away to keep her safe, and _she_ wouldn't have tried so hard to help him. There's something different about him, and even if Optimus isn't here right now, we all know he wouldn't just ignore it."

I moved my head from one Autobot to another. Tank and Femme Fatale didn't look pleased by the little human's words, and Grumble-bot was still rubbing his chin and staring at me. Riley gave Glasses a thumbs up, and his face turned a bright red. Beeper shifted his stance, doing the same thing I was.

Grumble-bot was the one to break the silence. "Our priority remains on finding Optimus. After that, we can decide on what to do with the Vehicon. All the precautions have been taken, and unless he attempts to attack, he can remain as he is now. I would prefer the children stay out of the base—"

"You can't keep me away from Jeffrey!"

" _But_ ," Grumble-bot paused to give Riley a hard stare, which she returned from beneath the brim of her cap. "Obviously, this one will prove to be a bigger problem than the other three, and we have to prepare Jack for what he has to do."

Beeper nodded, but the remaining two Autobots continued to scowl. Femme Fatale shifted her hips to angle in the opposite direction and glared directly at me. "I'm keeping my optics on you."

Something made me straighten my posture and tilt my head. "I'll be sure to get a wax just for you."

Silence—so much silence. And wide eyes, especially from the humans. I slumped again from the weight of all of their stares. "Autobots don't tease—duly noted. I'm just going to be keeping my mouth shut from now on. Before I dig a hole too deep to climb out of."

Riley snorted, and then a loud, barking laugh escaped her. Glasses chuckled with her, and Beeper's kibble practically danced on his back. Tank snorted too, but he held his hands up when Femme Fatale shot him a deadly glare. Grumble-bot sighed. "I should've offlined your vocalizer along with your weapons."

"Now that's just cruel."

* * *

Riley stubbornly stood beside Beeper's open door, glaring up at Grumble-bot. I scratched the back of my head. "Riley."

"Just hush, Jeffrey."

"But—"

"Hush!"

Glasses laughed from the passenger's seat of Beeper's alt-mode. "Come on, Riley. Ratchet's already said nothing will happen to Jeffrey."

Grumble-bot huffed and crossed his arms. "And I don't say things very lightly."

Riley narrowed her eyes but turned away from Grumble-bot to glare at the femme standing near us. Femme Fatale gave the glare right back with a little cock of her hips. Riley pointed at her. "Stay away from, Jeffrey."

"Gladly."

I vented and ducked my head when Tank chuckled from the other side of the room. "Riley, please. The point is to make the Autobots trust us—not threaten them."

"Trust will come after threats." Grumble-bot shook his head and walked away. I didn't blame him; Riley should have left ten minutes ago, but instead she had stood there glaring at all the Autobots one by one. Now, she sidled back up to me and patted my foot. "You just tell me everything they do, and I'll be sure to put potatoes up their tailpipes tomorrow."

"Yes, _dad_." I crouched and poked Riley in the side. She squealed and swatted my finger with a smile. "Now go home and explain to your dad that you're not a maniac. I'm sure he got a lot of phone calls after you threatened Beeper over there."

Riley winced, and I knew that she had been thinking the same thing. She pushed my finger away before she paused and pulled it back to her. She gave it a side-hug and pressed her check against the flat part of my finger. "Don't let them push you around anymore. Remember you're not a number."

I froze and tried to ignore the Autobots watching us. Riley let go of my finger and pushed her cap back into place. She gave Femme Fatale one last glare before she climbed into Beeper's alt-mode. She waved from the interior, and I relaxed enough to wave back until Beeper spun around and drove out of the base.

Femme Fatale followed them, and I was left with Grumble-bot and Tank. I vented and trudged over to my berth, flopping down face first on top of it with another vent. I disabled my visor and tried to relax my frame.

The loud thump of footsteps made that hard, and I flickered my visor back on when they came to a stop beside me. I tipped my head to the side to see Tank standing at the foot of my berth. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Not yet."

Well, if that didn't sound promising, I don't know what did. I rolled over and sat up to face the Autobot. I got the feeling he was just going to stand over me threateningly for a while from the way he crossed his arms and leaned against the berth. I glanced at Grumble-bot and found him standing by the Ground Bridge, his back facing us.

"So." I dragged the word out and turned back to Tank. He looked so much bigger up close. "How was your day?"

Tank didn't smile. Or chuckle, or snort, or show any other sign of amusement. He just stared. I shifted on the berth and glanced away. "This is getting very awkward."

"Good." I scooted back when he leaned in. "Remember that feeling."

"No problem." I vented when he backed away. All these threats that were going around today—no wonder there was still a war going on. Tank grunted and pushed off the edge of the berth. He was already turned and headed back to where he had been when I decided to open my big mouth again. "Megatron really has your Prime?"

I felt like I've been waving my hands in surrender a lot lately. Tank's swift turn and deadly glare just made the gesture all the more obvious. "I'm just trying to understand! I never imagined the Prime becoming a prisoner after seeing what he does in a fight."

Instead of answering me, Tank turned around and stomped off in the direction of one of the tunnels. I heard Grumble-bot mutter something over by the Ground Bridge, but I dropped my head into my hands and couldn't see what he was doing.

This was going to be very long and very tiring process.

* * *

 **AN:** I am so tired D:

Anyway, long story short, updating for the next few weeks/months is going to be iffy. Last week, a new semester of classes started for me, and I have been bogged down with so. Much. _Reading_. I know that, as an English major, that's kind of _required_ , but jeez, I swear each of my professors assigned an entire novel to be read and annotated over the weekend D: So, the fact of the matter is that in the next few weeks, I'll be lucky to have enough free time to sleep :/

But that's just how it's looking. For all I know, I might sit down and write an entire chapter for some relief ;P

So, that being said, I'm too tired to have a specific question for this chapter. Give me any feedback you'd like, whether it concerns the flow of the chapter or the dialogue. I just wanna sleep now XD

I'll see you guys in the next update!


	6. How Boredom Works

**AN:** *slowly crawls out of oblivion* I have returned! Just in time for Christmas! Merry Christmas (and Happy Holidays for those who don't celebrate Christmas)! \^o^/ Hopefully this long gap between chapters hasn't been to disappointing for you guys (she says as _Rise_ slowly gathers a mound of dust in the corner…)

Anyway, on to more Jeffrey!

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter V

How Boredom Works

* * *

Sometimes, I wish I had been programmed to be a miner. Not that their job was any easier than a soldier, but my experience with them pegged them as being just a _little_ smarter than the average Vehicon. I would have settled for a position on the bridge too because those guys were _definitely_ smarter.

Instead, I got stuck with foot soldier/errand boy. I could shoot (not straight obviously), and I was a pro at running a data-pad from one end of the ship to another, but that doesn't help much in other areas of life.

So, when Grumble-bot started mumbling around the Ground Bridge, I couldn't even come up with something sassy to say. I just sat on my berth and stared as boredom slowly deteriorated what was left of my processor. Beeper didn't help as he sat on the floor beside the hole Grumble-bot was in, handing down weird looking tools whenever the medic demanded them.

My fingers twitched on the edge of the berth. "What time is it?"

Beeper glanced up long enough for his optics to spin, but it was Grumble-bot who sighed. "You would know that if you allowed me to fix your chronometer."

I shook my head even though I knew he couldn't see me. "Nope."

"I'm afraid none of us have the _time_ nor patience to waste on telling you the time every breem of the day."

I shook my head again and quickly calculated a breem into human minutes. It had been so long since I actually used Cybertronian units of time; it was actually surprising how comfortable I had become living on a human schedule. "I thought Autobots were supposed to be all accommodating and stuff."

Beeper's optics winked, and Grumble-bot took a moment to peek out of his hole. "Is _that_ what the Decepticons are saying nowadays?"

I shrugged and collapsed back onto my berth with a sudden bang. I watched both Autobots jump from the corner of my optic band, and I couldn't help but snicker. "I'm bored."

The Autobots continued to stare. I stared straight back. "You know—the state on the edge of death? Boredom? Don't tell me Autobots are immune to it. Or is this what you constitute as fun?"

Grumble-bot was the first to move while Beeper continued to stare at me. "I liked you better when you were in stasis."

"I get that a lot."

Grumble-bot huffed and ducked back into his hidey hole. I turned to Beeper and found him still staring. Maybe it was the confidence boost from Riley earlier or the fact that boredom was seriously beginning to eat away at my sanity; either way, something in my stuttering processor thought it would be a good idea to finally vacate the berth I had been glued to since Riley had left, and I sidled up to Beeper's side. He watched me the entire way and released a low-pitched noise that was the mangled offspring of a beep and a buzz when I stopped beside him.

I had to exude nothing but casual curiosity and almost fell into Grumble-bot's hole when I tried to lean against the wall. "So…you beep."

Beeper had little response past cycling his optics. Quite frankly, I didn't blame him. Apparently, casual small talk with the enemy was not one of my strong suits. "I mean, you don't just beep. You buzz too…and make this sound like a dying animal sometimes. It's…cool."

Beeper turned to Grumble-bot and made his aforementioned sounds. Grumble-bot huffed, and dare I say that huff almost sounded like a laugh? "Just ignore him, Bumblebee. We have more important things to do."

"As do I." I leaned forward to look down Grumble-bot's hole and was immediately given an annoyed buzz. I backed up before Beeper could come after me. "Okay, okay! Sorry—still learning the dos and don'ts around here. I'll stay out of Grumble-bot's holes."

Beeper's door-wings shot up, but it was Grumble-bot who responded first. "Grumble-bot? It's _Ratchet_. Even Autobot will suffice for you."

"That's sounds so boring though." I turned to Beeper, but he still stared at me with wide, bright optics. I'm starting to think that staring is one of his secret powers, right after noise making. "What? You don't use nicknames or something?"

"Nicknames suggest a sense of familiarity between people." I fidgeted under Grumble-bot's hard stare. Beeper was no help now that he had fixed me with the same stare. "So, with you? No."

With that, Grumble-bot went back to doing whatever he was doing, and Beeper kept staring at me. I stood long enough to feel awkward and trudged back over to collapse on my berth. Attempt number one at making "friends?" Total fail.

But I'm still calling them by the names I gave them in my head. Because my names were so much better. Autobots just don't appreciate good humor.

* * *

Almost an entire week passed after that, and I thought I was starting to find a pattern in the Autobot's routines. Grumble-bot rarely left the big room I was confined to, constantly tinkering with the Ground Bridge, and he only left after he threw something across the room with an aggravated shout.

Beeper and Tank often switched out in what I assumed was guard duty. Tank casually kept a close optic on me whenever he was there, and I swear I saw him smile when I fidgeted too much. Beeper did the same, though unlike Tank, he rarely made optic contact with me; he always tensed when I got off the berth for lack of anything better to do, and I got the impression that he was trying to avoid another weird conversation.

Femme Fatale only hung out long enough to glare at me and down a ration of Energon. I tried not to stare too much when she came in, but her harsh glares let me know I wasn't that successful. Needless to say, our relationship went absolutely nowhere.

Nothing came up about their Prime or the humans. Tank would sometimes start to say something and then glanced at me before clamming up. I'm not gonna lie—I was dying with the need to know the full story, but even I wasn't dumb enough to go anywhere near that subject again. The topic of the humans was a totally different thing; Grumble-bot threatened to seriously offline my vocalizer if I didn't stop asking where Riley was.

Exactly one, slow week later (which I was only able to keep track of after a lot of pestering from Grumble-bot), I was messing with the TV when Grumble-bot demanded my attention with a huff. "Jeffrey?"

I tilted my head towards him and valiantly resisted the urge to snicker at his expression. Something must have been said outside the room because the Autobots had started using my name a day or so after Riley had threatened them. Meaning, Grumble-bot actually made an effort to use my name on occasion while the others fell back into "Decepticon" or some variation of that. He always had this funny expression when he said it though.

I turned over the tiny controller pinched between my fingers. "I didn't do it."

Grumble-bot paused and immediately put his hands on his hips with a scowl. "Do _what_?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. You just sounded like you were about to blame me for something, and none of you have given me the stink-eye in a while. Just thought I'd be preemptive in my pleas of innocence."

Grumble-bot huffed, but his optics flickered for a moment. "You're getting too comfortable here."

"Can't help it. It's the only room you'll let me hang out in." I presented the controller to the huffing medic. "You know how Beeper got this working? I can't get the game started."

Grumble-bot waved a hand towards me, and I instinctively jerked back to avoid being hit. Grumble-bot's optics dramatically brightened, and he slowly lowered his hand again. A tense moment passed before he continued with a new scowl. "Put the children's things away! Games should be the least of your worries."

I opened my vents wide and made a perfect impression of the huffing medic. His optics darkened at the noise. "Yeah, yeah. Prisoner 'Con—I should just wallow in a puddle of alloy on the berth until my final fate is determined. Well, that berth isn't as comfortable as you seem to think it is, and my processor is slowly melting from the boredom. Working for the Decepticons invoked more fear than sitting here doing nothing and still getting a ration every day."

I fiddled with the controller and waited for Grumble-bot's response. Another minute ticked by, and I felt a gradual increase in internal temperature. Now that I think about it, there may have been some skills I learned from my days as a 'Con that I actually appreciated in hindsight—like the ones that taught me to keep my mouth shut. Those were the days...and then Riley corrupted my poor, Vehicon processor.

Grumble-bot stared a moment longer. He moved; I flinched in preemptive defense, but all I received was a stained rag to the face. The rag slowly slid down my face, and my olfactory sensors picked up the bittersweet smell of wax. Grumble-bot snorted when I allowed the rag to fall off my face and catch on my windshield.

"If you're so bored," he started, "why don't you put yourself to some use? Clean off those berths—scuffs included—and pick up those containers you've been collecting for whatever reason."

I caught my groan before it managed to escape and clutched the rag. I examined the two berths, one of which was unofficially mine, and the pile of plastic Energon cubes on the unoccupied berth. The groan escaped me despite my efforts. That was so much _work_.

"Also." I jumped and realized that Grumble-bot still stood beside me. His red chevron twitched up. "The children are being brought to the base today. Allow me to remind you of the inhibitor I installed beneath your armor. The first sign of a potential threat from you, and I'll have you writhing on the floor. Not to mention none of us will hesitate to put you on the ground ourselves."

I nodded. Not that I needed a threat for something I wouldn't even think about attempting, but a nod seemed like an appropriate response. "Riley's coming too, right?"

Grumble-bot's chevron rose even higher, and his optics brightened. He seemed like he wasn't going to answer before he spoke again. "I suppose. I wasn't informed of who specifically would be coming, and I haven't received another message of someone being taken 'hostage' again. Is it important to you that she return?"

It was my turn to express surprise. I twisted the rag between my hands and heard the tiniest sound of it ripping because of sharp fingers. "Of course it is!"

"Why?"

My vents stuttered; the rag in my hand ripped even more. "Why not? She's the only friend I've got. Excuse me for actually wanting to see her."

I twisted around and practically fell over the nearest berth in an attempt to escape the medic's stare. The tips of my fingers scratched the berth when I tried to scrub it with the ripped the cloth, but I was more focused on calming myself before I said something worse. It was still a little insulting that none of the Autobots wanted to believe I actually cared about Riley. They could have little humans, but a Vehicon? Oh, no, Vehicons didn't have the social skills to have friends…or spark, or some other excuse they could come up with.

Grumble-bot shifted behind me, and I tensed. He didn't say or do anything else though—just walked away to his Ground Bridge and started tinkering again. I paused scrubbing the berth and glanced at the pile of cubes on the other. "Do I seriously have to get rid of _all_ the containers?"

"Yes."

"But…" I turned and waved dramatically at my collection. Grumble-bot didn't even acknowledge me. "It's _art_."

"It's _trash_."

"It's my one release from this cruel, boring world!"

Grumble-bot finally glanced up at me, and I stared back. His optics never wavered, and I was the first to look away. "I'm starting to think there is some glitch in your programming."

I stomped my foot and threw the rag onto the berth. "I am not a glitch!"

My anger had little time to fester when the large door to the base groaned open. I jumped over the berth and ducked down right as Tank turned the corner. Beeper's distinctive low-pitch engine and Femme Fatale's growling one followed, and I huddled down even farther. None of them had been in the same room since Riley's visit. I wasn't exactly eager to face all four of them at the same time again.

All of them stopped short of my hiding place, and all I could hear above the Autobot's engines were doors clicking opening and slamming shut. Then came the voice I had been dying to hear all week.

"What did you do to Jeffrey? I warned you guys—now there's gonna be potatoes up all your tailpipes."

I peeked above the edge of the berth and found Riley standing with her hands on her hips. She glared at each of the Autobots but mostly at Femme Fatale and Neighbor Boy, who stood beside her. Over by Tank stood a somewhat familiar girl who scowled back at Riley, and Glasses stood slightly behind Beeper's foot.

I ducked back down and slid along the floor to peek out the end of the berth. I cupped my hand around lower half of my face. "Pst! Over here!"

Riley twirled around, smiled, and jogged towards me before I could even wave her over. She ducked around the berth to join me, and I took one last look at the Autobots and ducked back into cover before Femme Fatale's glare could melt a hole through forehead. I shifted around, and Riley got comfortable beside me.

I waited until the Autobots and their human companions began conversing to themselves—something about toy cars and Ground Bridges—before dropping my voice as low as I could. "What took you so long? I was starting to go crazy here!"

Riley leaned forward and struggled to get her arms through the loops of her backpack. "Well sor- _ry_. My dad had a fit when he heard I was holding up somebody at school with his nail gun and grounded me for the whole month! I wouldn't even be here if I hadn't told him I already had a project to do for school. He thinks I'm in the library doing research right now."

"He actually bought that story?"

"Probably not, but he let me go anyway."

I nodded. Riley's dad had always seemed like a smart guy…other than completely missing the fact that his daughter's best friend and car were one in the same. You had to give the guy a little bit of slack when it came to that though. Normal human cars didn't talk after all. "What's your project on?"

"Wha—there's not _really_ a project, Jeff."

"I know…just wanted to see if it was a believable project."

Riley stared up at me with narrowed eyes, and I stared back. It wasn't until I started flickering my optic band that she pouted and hid her face in the backpack while she dug around inside it. "It's a science project."

"About what?"

Riley paused and twitched. "About…it's about the probability of life on other planets! Are you happy now?"

I snickered but stopped when the Autobots' conversation paused. Riley and I stared at the berth behind us until they started talking again. "Can I be the professional you interview for it?"

"Shut up, Jeffrey." Riley pulled out a few books from school and stacked them between us. I lightly tapped the cover of the thick Trigonometry book on top until she swatted it away. "Stop that before you poke a hole through it. If I have to pay for a textbook, then you don't get your _surprise_."

I immediately stopped and put my hands between my outstretched legs. "Surprise?"

"Yep." Riley dramatically paused and waited until I fidgeted. She pulled out a tiny device she had stashed away in her bag.

I gasped and held my hand out for the device to be dropped into my palm. "Game Boy!"

"And this."

The next toy was dropped beside my precious game device, and I gasped again. "Rubik's!"

"And last, but not least…"

I dropped the two games the moment Riley pulled out a human-sized data-pad. Apparently, it was one of biggest by human standards, but it was still way too small for a mech my size. But that didn't matter—what mattered were the contents the little device had stored on it. "You _didn't_."

"You better be glad my dad records those weird soap operas anyway." Riley's nose scrunched up, but I didn't care. I was too busy trying to get the delicate screen to respond to the points of my finger. "All of the episodes you missed should be there. I spent _hours_ transferring and saving each episode, which took up almost all of the crappy memory on that thing. You're welcome."

She took the data-pad from me and tapped her way to my soaps. My frame vibrated from my excitement, and the first episode was beginning to buffer when a hand from above came down and crushed my dreams. Riley yelped when giant fingers pinched the tablet between them and snatched it away. Her yelp turned into a squeaky growl when she glared up at the retreating hand. " _Excuse_ me! That's _my_ tablet you're stealing!"

My own offense shriveled away when I looked up at the Autobot that had snatched away my saving grace. Tank's optic ridges squinted down at the tablet between his fingers. I flinched when he reached down again to pinch the Game Boy in his other hand. "No outside electronic devices for the 'Con."

My shoulders slumped, but Riley jumped up and chased after Tank after he had vanished from above. I scrambled to my feet but was too slow. "Is this how all you _Autobots_ treat your prisoners? Even a prisoner has his rights to watch his terrible soap operas! And ooooh! An outdated Game Boy's such as a threat—it might make his eyesight terrible if he stares at it too long."

Tank stopped long enough to glance between the tablet and game system. Riley pointed back at me when he looked down at her. "Look at him! He's going insane with nothing to do. He even tried to replicate the Leaning Tower of Pisa with blocks."

I glanced back at my art creation with a critical optic. "It was supposed to be the Eiffel Tower."

"He's so delusional from boredom that he can't even tell famous buildings apart."

I tilted my head and dimmed my optics. No, no that was definitely the Eiffel Tower, or at least what it looked in the pictures I had found trolling the internet. Riley just didn't care for my artistic interpretation of it.

"This is a neglect of Jeffrey's mental wellbeing!" Beeper twittered from the other side of the room, but Riley completely ignored him. Her sole focus was on the towering mass of Autobot Wrecker, who looked surprisingly more confused than I had ever seen him. "And he's not even being taken well care of physically! Look at that layer of dust on his armor, and he's still got scuff marks from when _she_ punched him for absolutely no reason."

"Riley, maybe you should—"

"Don't talk to me."

My optic band winked at Riley's flat voice. I glanced over at Neighbor Boy, who had snapped his mouth closed with wide eyes. Not that I blame him. I had never heard Riley speak so emotionless before. It was actually scarier than her squeal-growl threats. "Be nice, Riley."

"No, I won't be nice Jeffrey." Riley shifted her glare from Tank to Neighbor Boy, and the girl standing beside him huffed. Glasses kept looking back and forth between Riley and his friends, looking a lot less confident than he had been the last time we met. " _He's_ the one that told his stupid bike you were living with me. All because he saw you open the garage to let Furball in."

I didn't even look at Neighbor Boy again. To be honest, the blame game for how I became the Autobot's new paperweight was starting to get tiring. "Just let it go, Riley. I'm here, and it doesn't matter anymore how that happened. It could be worse—I could be scrap metal under Megatron's feet."

Riley looked just about as convinced as Furball did when I tried to convince it that dry pellets was as good as a juicy squirrel. I shook my head, and her rigid pose finally relaxed a little. "Fine, but that doesn't make us friends again. Back to Jeffrey's wellbeing—"

"As long as the 'Con gets its minimum amount of Energon, it's taken care of." Femme Fatale only matched Riley's glare when my human fully turned to her. "This isn't some spa, or whatever you humans call it. It's a _prisoner of war_ , not a guest. Ratchet's done it more than a favor just patching up the repairs you did to it."

"I saved Jeffrey from dying when no one else cared!"

My processor was starting to ache. I had only wanted Riley and my soaps back to feel somewhat normal again. One of those two things was attempting to drive the one Autobot always on edge to the point of squishing her. The other comfort was pinched between Tank's fingers.

So, I scooped up Riley in my hands, ignoring the way Femme Fatale and Tank tensed, and retreated back to my berth. Riley protested when I rolled her onto the berth, but I simply bent over to gather her things and dumped them beside her. "Don't you have homework to do instead of provoking the deadly robots that could squish you? Your dad got upset because you almost failed a class at your last school when you didn't do your homework."

Riley grunted and settled down enough to snatch up the Trigonometry book I nudged towards. She turned her back on the Autobots, and I half-turned with her, not really willing to completely let the Autobots out of my sight when my back was fully exposed to them. Beeper twittered and made little motions with his fingers, letting Glasses get the attention of the other kids by suggesting a game tournament. With their attention taken, only Femme Fatale was left to glare in our direction while Tank took Riley's things to Grumble-bot.

I decided for once to ignore her and started pointing out mistakes in Riley's multiplication.

* * *

"No! Twist it the other way."

"I just did that!"

"No, you twisted it sideways. Now you have to twist it up."

"That's the same row because you told me to spin the whole thing around."

"…then you put that row back in the spot it was and turn it upside down."

Riley groaned and threw the Rubik's Cube at my knee. "You're just trying to annoy me now."

I picked up the cube and twisted the layers around three times. All the colors matched up, and I showed it off. "See? If you had followed my instructions, you would've gotten a perfectly color-coordinated cube."

Riley snorted and shoved the cube away. I quickly mixed the colors again and glanced around the room. Riley and I had spent a few hours doing all of her homework—from Trigonometry to some short article she had to summarize for Economics—and after Riley had snapped at Tank for hovering over us (and making me do nothing but cringe every time he so much as _breathed_ ), nobody had messed with us.

Femme Fatale had left when Neighbor Boy claimed to be late for work, and Bunny—the girl I finally recognized as being Riley's BFF on the first day of class—had said her parents had wanted to video chat and left with Tank about an hour ago. Beeper had beeped only Glasses knows what and left said human with Grumble-bot to disappear down one of the numerous tunnels connected to the room. Those two had been tinkering with the Ground Bridge long enough for us to relax on my berth.

Riley picked up the cube after I had put it down and twisted it again. "How do you stay entertained with this thing when you already know how to solve it?"

"It's not solving it that's fun." I made a shrugging motion. "It's figuring out all the different ways to solve it."

Riley twisted the cube until one row of colors matched. "You're weird."

"I've been getting that a lot lately."

Riley tossed the cube again when she lost her line of color, and I picked it up to twist and turn. "Are you sure you're okay being here, Jeffrey? It's not fair that you're doing everything they tell you, and you're still being treated like dirt. Do they even let you have a rag and bucket to clean with?"

I scratched at my elbow joint without realizing it. Little flakes of gravel fell out, but I quickly brushed them away. Riley still saw though, and she glared when I shrugged again. "I'm still getting treated better here than I did with the Decepticons."

"Because _that's_ such a hard standard to beat."

I was about to speak when one of my peripheral sensors picked up a little source of heat coming around the berth. I shook my head at how weird it was to have those sensors functional again and gestured for Riley to greet Glasses. She had to lean far over the edge of the berth to see him on the ground below. "What happened to your car?"

At first, I thought she was talking about Beeper, and I glanced around for the yellow Autobot. It wasn't until Glasses held up a busted toy car missing all but one wheel and sporting a melted frame that I realized what they were talking about. "I was helping Ratchet with the Ground Bridge. It…didn't go so well."

I glanced around again and found Grumble-bot standing over by the Ground Bridge controls. I looked away as soon as I found him though, unable to watch the motionless 'bot stare at a blank screen. "Did it get zapped into a bomb or something?"

Glasses sort of shrugged and fiddled with the ruined car in his hands. Riley completely ignored the kid's the sudden nervousness and leaned further over the edge until I had to pinch a bit of the back of her shirt to keep her from tumbling over. "Lemme see it. I bet you could fix it with a few spare parts and a lot of tinkering."

"No, that's fine." Glasses tossed the car towards my pile of cubes that had been reluctantly "cleaned up" earlier. Meaning, I had tossed them over by the wall for one of the Autobots to do as they pleased with them. "It was just a cheap toy my dad bought for Christmas last year. Actually, he bought it for my older brother, but my brother didn't want it, so he gave it to me instead."

"A new toy hand-me-down? I'm kinda glad I don't have an older brother or sister." Riley made a face that made Glasses chuckle, and she gestured down at him. "Wanna come up now that you've obviously got nothing to do? Maybe you can beat Jeffrey's time at solving a Rubik's Cube."

Glasses didn't immediately reply. He shifted from one foot to another and glanced in Grumble-bot's direction. "I kinda promised 'Bee I wouldn't get too close to Jeffrey without another Autobot nearby…"

"Grumble-bot's right over there." I snickered at the nickname Riley had already picked up from me. She was fonder of calling Femme Fatale "that bike," but otherwise, the Autobot's nicknames had stuck with her the moment I told them to her. "And it's not like Jeffrey's gonna hurt you or nothing. He proved that last time."

The kid fiddled with his glasses, and his eyes bounced back and forth from me to Grumble-bot. "I guess you're right. Just…how 'bout we sit over by the TV? I bet the couch is a lot better than a slab of metal."

Riley shrugged. I shrugged too; if the kid didn't wanna sit by me, he didn't have to sit by me. I'd rather he not go against Beeper and get me on the bad side of one of the only Autobots that is somewhat tolerable of my presence. Glasses jogged back around the berth and up the staircase to the platform while Riley got a short ride up from the berth.

The humans' little set-up had been moved to the other side of the platform by Beeper during the week, but that only meant I had to walk around to the other side to access it. I went the long way to avoid passing Grumble-bot, who was now muttering to himself and vigorously punching in strands of numbers on one of the consoles.

Glasses had already booted up the game, and Riley and he were picking one of the numerous characters on the screen. "So, B is to punch, Y is to jump, X is to crouch, and A…I don't think A does anything really. Oh, and you can activate your special attack by pressing the left and right triggers together when the bar on the screen starts to glow red."

"I didn't comprehend a thing you just said." I leaned over the railing beside the couch and balanced my chin on top of my hands. "Fight!" flashed across the screen along with a scruffy voiced announcer, and Riley's character immediately went flying in the opposite direction of Glasses. "Woah! What was that?"

"Oh! That's what A does."

I snickered at Riley attempting to figure out the controls. Glasses was a lot more patient than I would have been and let her at least figure out how to punch before he methodically beat her with a perfect K.O. They did a few more rounds, Riley losing the majority until Glasses had mercy on her, before they decided to move on to a simpler racing game.

Meanwhile, Grumble-bot had gone back to tinkering with the Ground Bridge, and I tapped my fingers against the floor as I watched him from the corner of my optics. "Why is your medic trying to change the settings on the Ground Bridge? It looked like it worked perfectly when he used it earlier."

Glasses shifted on the couch, glancing up at me a few times before concentrating on the game. "I don't think I'm allowed to tell."

"Why not?" Riley grunted when Glasses' car in the game weaved past her. "What's he gonna do? Use his Rubik's Cube to send out color coded messages to everyone in the world."

"It's more because I know the Autobots wouldn't like it if I told." Glasses tilted his controller to the side like it would help him avoid the barrel that spawned on the race track. It didn't. "Man! Anyway, Bumblebee was talking about how Arcee and Bulkhead are already upset that the power grid on the side of the base with the brig went down right before you and Jeffrey showed up, and they haven't been able to fix it with Ratchet's attentions on the Bridge. They'd be even _more_ upset if they found out that Jeffrey's snooping."

I tried to sound offended, but I only got a bunch of static for my efforts. "Me? _Snooping_? I'm just trying to understand why your medic's focusing on fixing an operational Ground Bridge while your commander is in the enemy's hands."

Glasses paused the game, making Riley moan as her car almost made it over the finish line first. He turned to face me, but his brown eyes still wavered between me and the floor. "Optimus' situation is…unique. We have to…there has to be… after Optimus and Megatron beat Unicron two months ago, he lost his memories, and now he thinks he's Orion Pax from before he became Prime, and Jack has to go to Cybertron in order to find Vector Sigma, so he can download Optimus' memories, so when we find a way to track and board the _Nemesis_ , we can return his memories to him."

Glasses gasped for breath, and I could only stare at him. Riley did the same, and it wasn't until the controller slipped from her hands and banged against the floor that I snapped out of it. "What?"

"Please don't tell 'Bee I just spilled everything." I shook my head, but Glasses turned away from me to face Riley. She could only blink at him. "I _promised_ I wouldn't tell you guys until…well, maybe never, but definitely not until they couldn't keep it quiet anymore. The very last thing they wanted was a former Decepticon knowing how they desperate they were."

The kid glanced at me and immediately looked away to fiddle with the controller in his lap. "It's a lot harder to stay quiet when you're directly asked about it from a Decepticon—former or not."

Riley patted Glasses on the back, but she looked at me from above his head with wide eyes. I quickly threw up my hands and took a step back. The last thing I wanted was for Grumble-bot to look over here and see me with one of their distraught kids. Past experience told me that medics had nasty tempers.

"It's…okay, Raf." Riley patted his back again. A little hard in my opinion, but what did I know? "Like I said before, Jeffrey's got nobody else to tell."

I waited until the kid had calmed down and then stepped forward again. I was actually surprised that Grumble-bot was so preoccupied with the Ground Bridge that he hadn't noticed Glasses' proximity to me. "Why don't the Autobots just use the Decepticon's Space Bridge instead of going through the hassle of altering the Ground Bridge?"

Glasses rapidly blinked his eyes behind his glasses. "The Decepticon's Space Bridge? Did you leave before the Autobots destroyed it?"

I tilted my head. "The one in the Energon mine? Wow, Starscream was sure you guys would never find it."

"Energon…" Glasses jumped up from the couch and sprinted across the platform, frantically waving his hands and shouting at Grumble-bot. A beeping came from the other side of the room, and Beeper dashed out of the tunnel he had left through earlier. The beeps were way more vicious than normal, and I instantly threw my hands in the air to announce my innocence.

Didn't really work out since I was knocked to the ground and found a somewhat familiar blaster shoved into my face. At least Beeper was a little less…enthusiastic than Femme Fatale when it came to potentially blowing my head off. Now, all I could hear was the hum of weaponry, Glasses stumbling over his words, and Riley's threats of shoving potatoes up tailpipes.

"Quiet!"

A hush fell over the room. I didn't even want to move as Beeper pulled back to look behind him at Grumble-bot. I could imagine Grumble-bot's most severe frown in place while he rubbed his head in aggravation. "Rafael, what happened?"

"Oh! Sorry. 'Bee? Jeffrey didn't do anything wrong. You can get off him." Beeper glanced down at me, and his optics flickered round and round in time to his angry whistles and whoops. I just let my head calmly fall onto the floor and stared at the ceiling. "No, I just got a little too excited. Ratchet, Jeffrey says the Decepticons have another Space Bridge, and he knows where it is!"

I jolted at that and struggled to get up. Beeper wasn't having any of that and used his non-blaster hand to pin my head against the ground again, much to Riley's displeasure. "Hey, whoa! I didn't specifically say I knew _where_ it was located. I just know it's down in an Energon mine because I got assigned to that mine a lot right before I deserted."

Grumble-bot's stomping feet approached fast, and his face appeared beside Beeper's door-wings, which jiggled more than they did when he first shoved me down. "Explain."

Beeper let up a little buzz, and I cautiously turned my head to face them more directly. "Right after you destroyed the first Space Bridge—the one that left Megatron spaced—Starscream began another Space Bridge project. I overheard him telling Soundwave that you guys found the first one way too easily, so he was gonna use the Energon crystals in the mines to cover the Bridge's signal. I was one of the few Vehicons that were put on constant rotation down there, but I never got the coordinates or anything. Soundwave opened the Ground Bridge and plopped us down there."

Grumble-bot's bright optics had slowly dulled the longer I spoke, and when I finally finished, he growled and stomped away. Beeper got off me a hesitant warble and followed. I sat up but didn't bother to stand, giving Riley a wave to let her know I was fine.

Glasses followed the Autobots around the room from the platform. "Ratchet—"

"A fat lot of help this is!" Grumble-bot suddenly grabbed something off a nearby workbench and tossed it across the room. I wasn't the only one who jumped, and Beeper made another, near silent warble. "A supposedly functional Space Bridge here on Earth, and we have absolutely no way of finding it! If any of what that Decepticon even says is true, we could spend _decades_ searching through every large deposit of Energon on this plant just to find one mine. Not to mention that many of those mines are _shielded_ to begin with so the Decepticons can avoid being noticed while they mine. It's like…like…I can't even think of the human idiom!"

Beeper warbled some more and followed Grumble-bot out of the room. I slumped down where I still sat, but I felt worse for Glasses, whose excitement over his discovery had completely worn off. He looked even smaller than usual as he leaned over the railing and took off his glasses to methodically wipe them with the end of his shirt. "Sorry, kid."

"It's not your fault." He put his glasses back on and slowly made the journey back to the couch. Riley put a hand on his shoulder this time instead of awkwardly patting his back. "It's…just…Ratchet's been trying so hard. Every time he gets close to being successful, it just…blows up in his face."

I scooted over to lean against platform and released a long vent. "I know the feeling."

* * *

Tank's glare was a lot harsher after the kids finally left. Oh, he laughed and joked when Riley threatened him, snatching back the tablet and game device he returned before Beeper left with her and Glasses. Once the humans had cleared the base, he became the Tank that was whispered about in the Vehicon quarters—the lock-jawed, green terror of the battlefield.

He stood guard over Grumble-bot when the medic came back out of hiding, quietly returning to his workstation and muttering in Tank's general direction. Tank looked a little put off by the dismissal, but that didn't keep him from assigning himself the duty of glaring over me while I recharged.

You know, if I could actually _recharge_ under those conditions.

I was about to give up altogether and pull out the Rubik's Cube Riley had left behind when Grumble-bot's workstation began to beep in a way I hadn't heard before. I vented in relief when Tank turned towards it. "What's that?"

Grumble-bot didn't respond but tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "A high frequency signal—with an embedded message…for _me_."

"Optimus?"

Grumble-bot tapped the screen, and I was almost tempted to leave my berth and see what on the screen had shocked them so much. " _Starscream_."

Oh…that was a little anti-climatic.

* * *

 **AN:** End Scene :D

I know it's been a few months since I updated, but we've already reached a 100 reviews for this story! That is so awesome because I've never gotten that amount of views in such a quick manner. I'm so happy you guys are loving Jeff and Ry so much and still sticking around even after so long of a hiatus :)

I'm hoping to get another chapter out before I start yet another semester of classes, but I can't any promises. I'm currently in the transition of moving to a new place and getting everything in order to attend another university. But hopefully that won't take very long :D

 **I also forgot to mention last night that all of Ratchet and Bulkhead's last few lines were straight from the episode "Orion Pax, Part 2"!** Sorry about that ;)

I'll see you guys next chapter!


	7. Teamwork

**AN:** Surprise! I finally updated something! :D I honestly think this took so long because I actually tried to stick to certain parts of the episode "Orion Pax, Part 3." Chapters like this always seem to take longer than usual…and I kind of hate them. It's really no fun to be constantly checking and re-checking episodes to be sure I'm not grossly messing it up (and despite that, I _still_ changed certain things to agree with my creative process) :P So if you happen to recognize certain parts of dialogue, it's because I actually used the same dialogue from the episode.

* * *

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter VI

Teamwork…Sorta

* * *

I twisted the top of the Rubik's Cube to the left; the bottom layer was twisted to the right. Up, down, then straight down the middle both ways. The colors matched perfectly once I was finished, and I presented the tiny cube to my current prison guard. "Ta da!"

Beeper glanced away from the monitor long enough to make some distracted noise. I huffed and quickly mixed the colors again. "You Autobots are so unappreciative. That was my best record yet…or I'm assuming it was. I can't tell the exact time because no one's willing to time it for me."

Another distracted buzz, and my fingers twitched. I put the cube down before I could break it and swung my frame off the berth. Beeper paid more attention to me then, angling his head to the side so he could watch the screen and me at the same time. I stared at the inactive Ground Bridge. "Does your medic make it a habit to patch up Decepticons?"

The Autobot whistled and beeped. I scratched at the grit irritating my elbow joint. "Whistle for yes—beep for no. Otherwise, I can't understand a thing you say."

Beeper's buzz abruptly cut off, and he turned to fully face me. His optics whirred as he went off on a beeping fit. I just stared. "Yes."

A low-pitched whistle. "…no?"

Brow plates slanted down at an abrupt angle, and a high-pitched beep-whistle accompanied it. I pointed at him with complete confidence. "3.14 and a whole bunch of other numbers I don't care about."

One quick boop had me putting my hands on my hips. "Now that's just rude."

I received an even shorter beep, and Beeper turned his back to me. I shrugged and paced the length of the room in front of the Ground Bridge. I managed to complete two circuits before Beeper turned on me, rapidly beeping and whistling. My hands shot up. "I surrender!"

Beeper shook his head. His door-wings jumped up and down, and he turned back to the console. I picked up my Rubik's Cube again. "How come Grumble-bot only called you back?"

I only got a door-wing tremor from him this time. I worked the Rubik's Cube until one face of it was one color. "She's not so open about saving Decepticons, huh?"

Beeper gave a half-shrug. I solved another face of the cube with a few more spins. "I wouldn't be so trusting of 'Screamer either. He tried to get the Vehicons to rebel one time; managed to convince the Eradicons, which isn't that surprising since they have similar alt-modes and ego, but the Vehicons? The smart ones thought he was nuts; I just knew I wanted to stay functional."

Beeper didn't make any sign of acknowledgement, so I made another face of the cube a solid color. "But get him the right mood—a desperate one usually—and he'll sing like a…what's the bird that humans use for that phrase?"

I got a whistle. "I'm gonna assume that was correct. Do you think it's possible to make a Rubik's Cube that's our size?"

Beeper's door-wings fluttered, but the console made a noise before I got a "real" answer from him. I jumped out of the way as Beeper activated the Ground Bridge without pause. Grumble-bot came through first followed by Tank. The medic's frame was more tense than usual, but any interaction with 'Screamer would do that to a mech. I was more surprised that Tank was smiling.

Beeper buzzed, and Tank chuckled. "I think he likes you, 'Bee. He barely says a word when I'm around."

I turned to Beeper and propped a hand on my hip. "Are you tattling on me, Beeper? I thought we had a thing going on between us."

I never knew that big optics like Beeper's could convey such a tired expression. Beeper released a lazy whistle that made Tank chuckle again. "That's what happens when you play nice with the 'Con."

Beeper's arms flew up as he beeped and buzzed. While Tank laughed, Grumble-bot huddled over the console. The screens flickered from one image to another until I recognized a map of Earth. The map zoomed in onto one location the more Grumble-bot typed until a big, pulsing dot took up the majority of the screen.

I shifted when I realized Tank and Beeper had grown silent. Grumble-bot slowly turned from the screen, and I froze when he focused on me. "It seems as if you were telling the truth after all. We've located the Decepticons' Space Bridge."

* * *

I thought I had met all of the humans the Autobots directly worked with. After all, I had only seen the kids running around the battlefield. I wasn't prepared when a chubby, dark skinned human stepped out of an elevator on the top platform, and he certainly wasn't prepared for me.

"Ratchet! I came as soon as I got your mes—" The human stopped, did a double-take, and glared towards me. "What in the name of Betsy Ross is this? I thought you said you had a solid plan to find Prime—not one of the enemy laid out in our base of operations."

I took offense to that: I was _not_ laid out in the middle of the base…I was huddled up on my berth on the _side_ of the room. Completely different thing. Grumble-bot didn't seem to care for specifics though. "Agent Fowler, there will be plenty of time for explanations later."

Chubby crossed his arms, and I tilted my head as he stood straight and proud in the face of Grumble-bot. "I don't think so. Last I checked, there was a very distinct difference between 'Bot and 'Con."

"Yeah, apparently there's no in-between." I shrugged at the glare I received. Now that I took a closer look at the human, I recognized him as the one that contacted Grumble-bot about the attack the Decepticons made on the human base. That hair was a dead giveaway. "We should create a new category for the people in-between. How about…BotCon? Sounds catchy."

"He's a prisoner of war," Grumble-bot huffed, completely ignoring my new, amazing idea. "Optimus will decide what happens to him. For now, we must focus on getting Optimus back."

Chubby continued to scowl, but I had moved on to better things. Like the arrival of the rest of the Autobots and their kids. Bunny hopped out of Tank first, her hair bobs flopping around with a mind of their own. "You finally found Optimus? _Sweet_. Let's go kick some 'Con butt and get him back!"

Glasses slid out of Beeper, and I was a little surprised that Neighbor Lady popped out after him. She took one look at me and immediately guided the kids away. Well then, next time I'd just let Furball eat the little birdies you put food out for Neighbor Lady.

Otherwise, I was pretty much ignored, even by Glasses. I listened with only half an audial as they discussed their game plan, from how to take the Space Bridge to Neighbor Boy going to Cybertron. I was still a little confused to why Neighbor Boy had to be the one to go to another planet, but I certainly wasn't in a position to question their motivations. It wasn't until Neighbor Lady asked about Grumble-bot's source that the attention shifted towards me.

I froze midway through stacking my pile of Energon cubes no one had bothered to throw away. Beeper buzzed, and Tank's lower jar clenched; Femme Fatale quirked a brow, and Grumble-bot waved a hand towards me. "As a show of good will, our recent…acquaintance has offered us valuable information."

"And we can trust what it says?"

Femme Fatale's choice of pronouns was really starting to hurt. Granted, I only paid half attention to what she said when she wasn't threatening me because of…reasons, but the pronouns were very obvious when she was the only one using them. "It" meant I was an object—something without a spark. I knew I had one of those now.

"His information has been corroborated by another…reliable source." Grumble-bot's stare made me shift, and shifting caused me to bump into my new rendition of the Pyramids of Giza, which sent all of the cubes tumbling to the ground. I fumbled to catch as many as I could but tripped over my own feet and fell face first onto the ground. I stayed on the ground afterwards and tried to force my vents to stop being so loud. "A much more reliable source."

"Clearly."

Right through the spark—she knew just how to use her words to bring me down.

"Either way, we will Ground Bridge into the Energon mine and make our way to the Space Bridge, neutralizing any Decepticon forces we encounter."

I sat up and peeked around the berth. Glasses was still staring in my direction, but he shifted his eyes between me, Beeper, and Neighbor Boy. Even his glasses couldn't hide the crease between his eyes. Clearly, this was a pretty risky operation, made even more worrisome by having one of his human friends in the middle of it. And the Autobots—a team of _four_ —were going to commander the Decepticons' only Space Bridge?

I stood up and shuffled over to where the group was assembled, stopping short just at the edge of the group behind Beeper. Chubby and Neighbor Lady immediately tensed, and Neighbor Lady went so far as to put herself between me and the kids. Grumble-bot went quiet while Tank and Femme Fatale tensed along with the humans. I put my hands up in surrender, but the only one who seemed to accept me was Glasses.

"I know." I stopped to reset my stuttering vocalizer. "I know that none of you trust me yet, and Riley isn't here to tell you otherwise, but…but I want to volunteer to help."

"That's just asking for a bullet in the back of our heads." Femme Fatale didn't even glance in my direction as she turned to Grumble-bot. "We already have enough worries about this mission to add another."

"But you're willing to leave me alone in your base with human allies?" Femme Fatale's glare plus Tank's scowl? I'm surprised I even had a voice to continue. "I know that mine like the back of my hand; I can get you to the Space Bridge without anyone seeing you."

"We can take care of a few 'Cons." Tank's fists clanked together, and I took a small step back. "Not like we haven't done that before."

"Vehicons are simple, but what'll you do when an officer checks in?" The silence was enough for me to take that hesitant step forward again. "I bet you didn't know that reports are given every hour to ensure that everything's fine in the mines, especially the one used to cover up the Space Bridge. You say anything funny, and they'll instantly be suspicious."

Beeper whistled. Tank's fists clenched to match his scowl, and Femme Fatale turned back to Grumble-bot. "It's still too risky."

"And what part of any of this isn't?" Everyone turned to Neighbor Boy. He didn't look at all fazed by the many eyes set on him. "We've only got one shot at this. Even if we don't fully trust him, the Vehicon—"

"Jeffrey."

I nodded at Glasses interruption even though he immediately ducked his head. Neighbor Boy took the interruption in stride. " _Jeffrey_ is the one who told us about this to begin with. I don't trust the Decepticons any more than you do, Arcee, but if there's any way for us to get a better advantage, we _have_ to take it."

Neighbor Lady stepped up and put a hand on Neighbor Boy's shoulder. I suddenly felt weird for staring and diverted my gaze. I redirected that gaze too when it landed on a glaring Femme Fatale.

"I'll even go in with weapons disabled." I put my hands in the air when none of the Autobots appeared convinced. "I can sweet talk any Vehicon we encounter. Trust me—I used to be just like them."

"Is that safe though?" Neighbor Lady still had her hand on Neighbor Boy's shoulder. "What if he signals the other Decepticons?"

"Weapons, comm. links, I'll even submit to another inhibitor being installed if it makes you feel any better." I shrugged one shoulder. "I can't give you Megatron's head on a platter, but I can at least help you get back the only guy who can."

Femme Fatale twitched at that. Beeper made his noise, and Grumble-bot's optics lit up despite Tank's heavy scowl. "Perhaps…yes. Jack is right. Our situation is too precarious not to take advantage of all of our available resources."

Grumble-bot turned to me, and I straightened my spine with a snap. "It's time you prove that your alliance with the Decepticons is over."

"Screw up, and I'll be the first to turn you into scrap."

"Slowly and painfully."

I quickly nodded in Femme Fatale's and Tank's directions. "I won't let anyone down! I'll show you guys just how serious I am about being defected. I'll show you guys that I'm _so_ defected, you'll have to create a new standard of defected because I'm so out there. I'll show—"

"Yes, yes, yes." Grumble-bot waved his towards me while he turned to face the humans again. "We get it. Right now, we need to finish planning our strategy before our short window of opportunity expires."

I nodded so hard that I received a ping from my systems to stop before I dislocated a neck cable. Even though I was ignored for the remainder of the meeting, I stood at the very back of group behind Tank and listened to every little detail they went over. My spark kept rapidly spun the entire time even when the group dispersed to prepare.

Glasses smiled at me before he followed his human friends to get Neighbor Boy "suited up." I wanted to smile back despite not having a mouth to do so. Being a part of team again…it made me realize I had been missing something I had never thought I would.

I turned to where Grumble-bot stood at his workbench. " _So_ …what exactly is my part in this plan?"

* * *

"This was _not_ what I had in mind."

None of the humans reacted to me. I released a loud vent, gaining the brief attention of Bunny, before I flopped down onto my berth. That definitely turned some heads. Chubby glared. "This was one of the guys we've been fighting? No wonder Ratchet slapped a bracelet on him and left."

I lifted my arm to look at the "bracelet" in question. Apparently, it was a revamped stasis cuff that would put me down with the press of a button. "Experimental," Grumble-bot had said before putting me on my back with a press of said button. The experiment had worked, and it had proven consistent when Chubby had pressed it again, "to be sure it was still working."

I think he got some sick pleasure in watching me twitch on the ground.

"I could've helped," I insisted to no one. They were obviously too busy staring at the consoles to care. "I could have guided them through the mine without being seen or convinced the Vehicons to just walk away without a fight. You'd be surprised by the number of Vehicons who would do that when an officer isn't there to shout at them to 'Fire, you fools!'"

No one seemed impressed by my poor impression of 'Screamer, but Glasses finally glanced my way. "I'm sure they would have…thought about taking you if this wasn't such an important mission."

Bunny snorted. "Yeah right! Bulkhead can take care of any 'Cons in his way. We can handle the wimpy Vehicon."

"Wimpy?" I stopped short of fully standing when Chubby's finger hovered over the button. Instead, I rubbed my wrist where the torture device was currently attached. "Yeah, well…I know what _you_ are, but what am I?"

The humans stared at me; I stared back. At this point, I was a _pro_ at staring.

Chubby shook his head and went back to watching the monitor. Bunny turned to Glasses and jabbed her thumb in my direction. "Is he serious right now? I haven't heard anyone say that since…since I was five!"

My awesome comeback was interrupted by the console. Just like that, I was ignored once more, and I huffed in offense. I know they had more important things to do right now, but come on! Wasn't I supposed to be the big bad Decepticon threat? The Autobots had been using that excuse to torment me for the past week after all.

"Strike Team to base. Objective secured."

I tapped my fingers against my forearm and watched the humans move. Chubby and Glasses powered up the Ground Bridge while Neighbor Lady and Boy came out of the corner they had been quietly talking in. I turned away when Neighbor Lady pulled the kid close and purposely dialed down my audials so I wouldn't hear was said. I did the same for Riley and her dad sometimes; some things just didn't seem like I should be listening.

It was also a very weird experience to watch people talk without actually hearing them. I got a bigger kick out of watching their mouths move than whatever was being said. By the time Neighbor Boy walked through the Ground Bridge—shoulders straight and head held high—I had decided that people watching was better without sound. Instead of listening to something serious, I could pretend they were telling jokes about flightless birds crossing the road.

Once the Ground Bridge dispersed, all of the humans huddled back up on the platform in front of the consoles. I shrugged and sat on my berth, picking up my Rubik's Cube and pretending I hadn't solved it a thousand times at this point. I solved it once and scrambled the colors to solve it again, not even glancing in the direction of the humans.

All that excitement about being part of a team again? Yeah, that died the moment Grumble-bot snapped on my new jewelry. So much for putting myself out there. I could just hear Riley scolding me right now:

"You should've done more than just sit down and play with your toy, Jeffrey! You deserve more than being stepped all over by a group of no good do-gooders. Learn to grow a backbone—or I'll take away your TV privileges for life!"

Then I'd poke her stomach and snicker at the growl-squeal she released.

Movement from the corner of my optic band made me look up. I involuntarily shrank back at the hard expression on Neighbor Lady's face and tried to hide my Rubik's cube, like that was the reason she glared at me. She probably thought I stole it from one of the kids after threatening to stomp on them or something.

It wasn't until her mouth moved and no sound came out that I realized I still had my audials muted from earlier. I quickly found the command that would switch them back and caught the end of her speech. "…Decepticon, but I never imagined one would be so rude!"

I stared for a moment. "…what?"

Neighbor Lady sighed and rubbed her forehead. I took her distraction to glance over at the other humans and found them still huddled over by the console, save for Bunny who sat on the railing with her legs swinging back and forth. I shifted my attention back and found Neighbor Lady giving me a hard stare once more.

I shifted on the berth and tapped one finger against the small surface of my toy. "I didn't do it?"

Her face twitched to confusion before she crossed her arms. "Then who told Ratchet about the Space Bridge?"

"Oh!" I spun the cube between my fingers for lack of anything better to do. "I _did_ do that. Told him about it, I mean. Not how to actually get to it because I was never important enough to know that."

I wanna say her expression shifted again, but I'm not sure. Obvious human face expressions I get at this point; subtle muscle twitches? I think Riley told me once that blinking was involuntary half the time, which is weird.

"If my son gets hurt because you gave the Autobots false information…"

My hands shot up. I think my processor was starting to register it as a default action now. "I'm not here to hurt anybody. I gave the Autobots that information to prove that."

Her face twitched again, and her hands clenched against her elbows. I nervously tapped the tips of my fingers together and shifted my posture when she stayed quiet. "Look…the Autobots…they obviously care about the kids because they always made sure they offlined any Vehicon that even _looked_ in their direction. And Fem—uh, _Arcee_ won't let anything happen to him."

I swear, my clicking fingers were the loudest things I had ever heard in that moment. It didn't even sound like the equipment was obnoxiously humming anymore. "Is that what you wanted to hear? Because I'm not really good at this."

Neighbor Lady's body slumped so abruptly that I jolted off the berth and put my hands out to catch her. I drew back when I saw Chubby go for the button out of the corner of my visor. Neighbor Lady chuckled, and I drew back even further.

"Look at me," she started. "I came over here to threaten you, and now I'm about to break down from all my nerves. I've had Riley over at my house for the past week trying to convince _me_ to convince _the Autobots_ to let you out of here. She even suggested I be your 'parole officer' since I was an adult."

"That sounds like Riley." Neighbor Lady sighed, and I didn't really like the sudden slump in her frame. Changing topics was supposed to appropriate for things like this, right? "Do you know if she's really been feeding the cat? I know she said she was, but sometimes Furball snubs its nose at the food she gives it, so she threatens to starve it."

I almost gave myself a pat on the back for the chuckle I received, but it didn't last long before Neighbor Lady sighed. The crease between her eyes deepened. "The Autobots didn't have much to say about Cybertron when I asked. They just assured me there was nothing there that Arcee couldn't handle. You don't have any obligations to be gentle with me."

I glanced over at the other humans. Chubby had fully turned towards us, arms crossed and eyes narrowed on me. One of his fingers hovered over the magical button of pain, like a constant reminder of the threat he posed to me. Bunny watched us too, though she seemed less concerned as she struck up a conversation with Glasses about skipping school today.

Neighbor Lady made a small noise, and her stance was firm again when I turned to her. "Well?"

I shrugged. "I honestly don't have much to say. I was a part of the last batch of drones that Shockwave activated before Megatron went off planet; I actually lived on the _Nemesis_ longer than I ever did on Cybertron. I've overhead Starscream complain about wasting resources on sentinels left behind, but other than that, I wasn't there long enough to figure out what was dangerous beyond the Autobots. I can imagine anything that's been hanging out on a dead planet for so long would be pretty hostile."

I instantly regretted what I said when Neighbor Lady slumped again. "I mean…no! The kid's gonna be fine—he's got a mean Autobot there to protect him. Anything would be stupid to try to fight her. She'll knock them out before they even know what hit them! Let's talk about the weather or something."

Neighbor Lady blinked. "You're certainly not like the last Decepticon I met."

"I seem to be getting that a lot lately." I paused. "You're just like Riley's dad though. He tends to constantly check on her when she's out of the house. It's like he thinks something horrific will happen to her if he isn't there."

"It's what parents do." Neighbor Lady glanced towards the Ground Bridge. "It's our job to worry about our kids."

"And interrogate scary Decepticons?"

"That's only a mom thing."

I hummed and nodded. "I've come to learn that the females of your species are the more assertive."

Neighbor Lady's eyes widened before she laughed. That got the full attention of the kids, and Chubby didn't look very happy at all. "I don't know whether to be offended or to that as a compliment."

"Being assertive is offensive?"

She laughed again, and even though I knew her eyes kept straying towards the Ground Bridge, I felt a little accomplished by being some kind of distraction for her. The concept of familial ties was still a fresh, new thing to me; to know that there could be people who view it as their duty to worry about another being's safety was more baffling than it should have been. The urge to provide some kind of distraction for that person—a human woman that I barely even knew and should probably dislike through her association with the Autobots—felt like it was the least I could do in the situation we were in. After all, I had learned to worry about Riley from time to time; I could only imagine how much more intense the feeling could be for Neighbor Lady for right now.

…actually, she didn't feel like a "Neighbor Lady" anymore. "Mom" was more appropriate for her…and I didn't actually know her name. I should probably learn that in the future.

"Ratchet to Base."

Mom didn't hesitate to jog across the platform and crowd around the console with the other humans. I stood back at an appropriate distance, taking another step back when Chubby's finger strayed too close to the dreaded button even as he spoke into the microphone. "Base here."

"Agent Fowler, I need you to put Jeffrey on."

The humans turned to me as one. I snapped to attention. "I, uh, yes? I mean, Jeffrey here."

"Good." Grumble-bot paused. "I'm patching you through to the Decepticon command. Breakdown is demanding a status report, and the longer we wait to respond, the more suspicious he will become."

"Not really." I tapped my fingers together and tried to ignore Mom's and Chubby's critical stares. "Sometimes the Vehicons would mess with Breakdown by pretending there was some kind of interference. He's the only officer we didn't have to worry about hunting us down later…plus he never figured out we were messing with him."

The speaker drowned out Bunny's snicker. "If you even attempt to hint…"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dead." I took a step closer to the railing and leaned down so that my face was closer to the microphone the humans were using. Even Glasses took a small step back. "Wasn't Breakdown calling?"

My answer came in the form of Breakdown's voice in mid-sentence. "—make me come down there!"

I modulated my vocalizer to produce a deeper tone. Like I really had to hide my voice from a mech who had heard it probably once before. "This is Space Bridge control."

It took Breakdown a moment to respond. "Uh, this is Breakdown. Your status report is overdue."

"Apologies Officer Breakdown. We were having technical difficulties for a moment. All is normal now."

Another pause. "Good. Breakdown out."

I straightened and shrugged at the humans staring at me with wide eyes. "That was Breakdown. He says hi."

Bunny snickered again, and Glasses gave me a small smile. Both of the adults still didn't seem convinced, much to my disappointment because I was pretty sure me and Mom had just had a bonding experience. Grumble-bot's voice prevented either of them from saying anything. "That was…impressive. We'll keep all of you updated. Ratchet out."

Silence—nothing but silence. I glanced between the humans, who seemed more interested in sending each other silent messages with their eyes. I shrugged. "Okay! If you need me again, I'll be over there on my berth. Playing with my Rubik's Cube…yeah."

I shuffled back over to my berth and picked up the toy I had left there. I had turned it a few times before Glasses shuffled over to stand above me on the platform. "So…did the Vehicons _really_ prank Breakdown like that?"

I nodded and began to tell the kid one of the few pranks the Vehicons took part in. At some point, Bunny edged closer and snickered. I felt the adults listened too, especially when I stood up to reenact Breakdown stumbling through the Ground Bridge while dragging a reluctant Soundwave behind him.

The story didn't keep any of them from constantly checking the console for an update, but at least none of them worried out loud again.

* * *

In retrospect, I really shouldn't be that surprised by the Autobots' success. They always found a way to make impossible odds come out in their favor. I mean, statistically speaking, the Decepticons should have wiped this small team out years ago. We had had the better firepower, the numbers, the sheer lack of morals.

I guess since they had the last Prime, all of those meaningless statistics were evened out.

But even without the Prime, they were beating out the Decepticons. I sat on my berth and listened to Neighbor Kid's success. Even after he had to leave Femme Fatale to handle an Insecticon, he still managed to make it to Vector Sigma (whatever what that was).

Now we just had to wait for everything to be over. It was…boring. I kept spinning my Rubik's Cube between glances at the humans. They were all huddled up around the console, barely breathing from the looks of it. It kinda made me wonder if this was what they did when the Autobots managed to keep them off the battlefield. Now I understood why they appeared so often.

I stopped playing with my Rubik's Cube when Neighbor Kid complained about the long wait. "Does anyone know the World Record for solving a Rubik's Cube? Because I think I've beaten it a million times by now."

Nothing. Though, in my defense, there was a sudden surge of activity from the console. They just couldn't hear me with the piercing whistle that came through after Neighbor Kid's exclamation over Scraplets. I hopped off the berth to stand in front of the console that Glasses now frantically typed at with the others watching over his shoulder. "What happened?"

"Our communications gave out." Glasses stopped long enough to adjust his namesake before his fingers were flying over his keyboard once more. "I can't…"

"What about Jack?" Mom put her hands on Glasses' shoulders. "Can you still reach him or Arcee?"

Bunny jumped aside as I leaned in closer, catching Glasses' sigh. "No. His and Arcee's channel was being relayed through Ratchet at the Space Bridge to strengthen their signal from Cybertron. Something must have happened at the Space Bridge."

"Decepticons." I nodded in response to Chubby's growl. "They must have figured out something fishy was going on."

"Soundwave probably noticed the Space Bridge was active." I shrugged when Chubby glared in my direction. "I'm surprised it took him this long to figure something out. Not much happens without him noticing."

"And you—the reformed Decepticon—didn't even think to tell us that would happen."

I froze. "I…I honestly didn't think about Soundwave monitoring the Space Bridge directly. I was just thinking about the status reports. I didn't…"

I trailed off, realizing that Chubby had already turned away to watch Glasses. Each second ticked by with nothing but keyboard clicks to break the silence. Whatever he did caused an error to pop up on one of the screens, and it multiplied the longer Glasses kept working.

The kid finally became frustrated enough to suddenly push away from the keyboard, bumping into Mom and Bunny. "I can't reconnect!"

Mom squeezed his shoulder, but her frown didn't appear as reassuring as I'm sure she meant it to be. "It's all right Rafael. Just take a deep breath. I'm…sure they're only experiences technical difficulties on their side. Ratchet will have us reconnected in no time."

No one seemed to be buying her excuse, not even herself. I glanced at the Ground Bridge. The jig was up—the Decepticons had finally figured it out. Knowing Megatron, he had probably sent a squad of Vehicons to handle the three Autobots; none of them were strong enough to pose a challenge to him directly. And if the Autobots lost the Space Bridge, that would leave the two on Cybertron stranded.

"Open the Ground Bridge."

"What?"

Chubby was cut off when Bunny jumped forward to jab her finger at me. "Are you crazy? Like we would add another 'Con to the fight against our 'Bots."

"No offense but three Autobots against an endless number of Vehicons isn't good odds. And one of them is a medic, so that makes two fighters and a grumpy old mech." I pointed at the inactive Ground Bridge. "You think Megatron's gonna just let them walk away after commandeering his Space Bridge?"

Chubby pulled Bunny back before she had a chance to retaliate, which was a shame. She's a spunky human. "And adding you to the fray is supposed to help? Sorry, but I've met enough 'Cons to learn they're not trustworthy. Stand down, or I'll make you do it myself."

I paused. There was complete radio silence now, even when Glasses attempted to hail Beeper for an update. Neighbor Lady stood next to the kid, eyes not moving from the screen of the console. What would happen to her only kid if the Autobots lost the Space Bridge? He was brave and all, and Femme Fatale would definitely protect him, but both of those things can only get them so far on a dead planet.

My optics drifted from her to the small device sitting on the console beside her. My gaze cut across to the lever that controlled the Bridge and then back to Chubby. Something clicked, and I was moving before my crazy plan had fully formed.

A lot of shouts followed when I jerked the lever down. The static of the Ground Bridge drowned out most of the noise, and it wasn't until I was halfway down the ramp that I felt a twinge of electricity shoot through my frame. I stumbled, but I pushed myself to take those last few steps until the familiar pull of the Ground Bridge replaced the shooting pain.

* * *

The familiar stench of mildew and sulfur gave me pause when the Ground Bridge spat me out. I ducked behind an outcropping out of instinct, knowing that any Autobot/Decepticon battle would have Energon blasts everywhere. I watched the Ground Bridge fizzle out, and my fingers twitched to shake off the residual electricity from the bracelet.

Long distance zapping was probably not a thing Grumble-bot thought of when he created his tortured device.

The silence of the cavern finally hit me, and I froze. It was quiet—way too quiet to be a battlefield. I glanced around the cavern and tensed when I found Tank laid out on his back. A quick assessment found Beeper and Grumble-bot in the same position and a hulking grey form standing in front of the Space Bridge.

My spark instantly dropped. I had been prepared to find a cavern full of Vehicons—those I could potentially handle. Megatron? No flipping way. Absolutely no competition. It would be like a human squishing a bug. Even if he had somehow missed the Ground Bridge opening behind him, what good was a surprise attack when he would snap me in half like a corroded pipe?

The Space Bridge behind him hummed, and I realized that Femme Fatale hadn't made it back with the kid yet. There was no time for relief though; assuming they had handled the Scraplet invasion and finished their business, they were probably on their way back to the Space Bridge at this very moment. They would be coming straight through into the sharp, pointy killing hands of Megatron.

My hands clenched and unclenched before I propelled myself over the rocks. I didn't think—I acted just like I had when activating the Ground Bridge. I pushed myself to sprint faster than I ever had before, my sole focus on Megatron's broad shoulders.

I went flying across the platform. I stared at the ceiling for a moment before my processor finally registered what had happened. Ouch.

"Another Autobot?" I scrambled to climb back to my feet before Megatron managed to reach me. No such luck—he grabbed the back of my head as I rolled over to stand and lifted me into the air to face him. My frame instantly went limp while his optics widened. "A Vehicon?"

I whipped my legs up to connect with the bottom of Megatron's chin. They met with a resounding _crack_ , and I fell back to the ground as Megatron stumbled back. He growled, and I scrambled to get away as quickly as I possibly could.

I yelped when his blade slashed the ground next to me. "You'll pay for such insubordination!"

The sound of another Ground Bridge opening behind me caught his attention. I rolled out of his path until I was far enough away to feel safe enough to see who had stepped out of the Ground Bridge. I had never gotten a proper look at the Autobot's Prime before, having always been busier dodging the other Autobots, but I was surprised by the amount of confidence that came from the mech as he stepped through. Even with the lost frown on his face, he kept his head high and gaze directly on Megatron.

Megatron chuckled and straightened his frame. "Orion."

The Prime's frown deepened. "Megatron, I cannot allow you to continue."

I backed further behind a pillar as Megatron chuckled again. "And why should you care? You are no Prime."

Prime never wavered, and I had almost managed to scoot myself to Grumble-bot, whose optics flickered off and on as he started to wake up. "Whether that may be true or not, I do know that my sympathies lie with the Autobots. And you are not one of us."

I paused as the two mechs clashed. My optics brightened when Megatron easily took the Prime down with a single punch to the mid-section. That was something that had never happened before. "Your spark may be in the right place, Orion, but you have much to learn before you can hope to ever stand your ground against me again."

I don't know how I ended up on Megatron's shoulder. Everything between standing and landing was a complete blur. All I knew was that Megatron was as inflexible as I had hoped, and he stumbled around trying to reach me. Must have been the massive shoulder guards holding him back.

I hung on for dear life and even tried to cover his optics with my hand. I managed to spot Prime out of the corner of my optics as Megatron spun around. "I know you're not exactly your Prime-self right now, but it would really help if you did something Prime-ly right about now!"

The Prime only gapped at us. Not that he could have done much since Megatron managed to find my arm and yanked me off his back. I grunted when I landed on the ground, landing awkwardly on the same arm he had yanked on. "You—!"

The sudden sound of an engine diverted Megatron's attention. I tilted my head to see behind me and caught the glimpse of a blue blur as it flew through the Space Bridge. I kicked Megatron's foot, doing little more than leaving a scuff on his foot. But the action served as an effective distraction when he glared down at me and got a face full of rubber.

Femme Fatale didn't waste a moment. She transformed mid-air and was all over Megatron with a battle cry. I was amazed by how much she was actually proving to be formidable opponent. Her speed and flexibility outmatched Megatron's, and she was able to duck to safety and avoid his strikes while landing a few of her own.

The way she moved left me mesmerized, and I laid there like an idiot, watching her frame twist and bend, until I heard the Space Bridge spit out another form. Neighbor Kid stood at the edge of the portal, his suit looking a little more scuffed than it did before. He held something that softly glowed.

I sat up and grabbed the arm I had landed on when it just flopped around at my side. "Have a nice trip?"

"For the most part." He watched the fight happening not far from us, and I could barely see his face change beneath the helmet he still wore. He quickly turned his head and straightened. "Optimus…"

With Femme Fatale still distracting Megatron, I jumped up and rushed over to where the Prime was still crouched on the ground. He looked utterly confused now—an expression that looked strange even to me—and he flinched when I reached out to grab his arm with my good one. "Wait—"

"No time for that." I grunted and bore the majority of his weight on my shoulders when he stumbled to his feet. I tried to ignore the stabbing pain it caused in my injured shoulder. "We've gotta get this done before Megatron gains the advantage again. Come on."

I guided him over to Neighbor Boy, feeling out of place when the two met. Neighbor Boy held out the glowing thing, and the Prime took a small step back. "Are…are you certain I'm ready?"

"You have no idea."

I looked away when the Prime's chest plate opened. A tingle in my own spark made me rub my chest plate and take an automatic step back. I focused once more on Femme Fatale. My tingling spark stopped when Megatron caught her mid-jump and slammed her against a pillar. My body reacted without consent once again, and I somehow managed to make Megatron stumble with a full-body slam to his side.

My optic band cracked when he slammed me face-first into the same pillar. "Enough of this! Hand over the Matrix now!"

I didn't hear any response to Megatron's demand. In fact, all I heard was a faint buzz and the internal alarms that told me I should be in pain right about now. Surprisingly, there was no pain anymore, not even from my shoulder. The anxiety of impending doom kept it all at bay.

Nothing happened though. To me at least. Through my cracked optic band, I watched a pair of Megatrons rush towards Neighbor Kid and the Prime, knocking Grumble-bot out of the way without pause. I felt more than saw Femme Fatale move from beside me and join the Autobots beside their old Prime, who confidently stood in the face of Megatron's rage.

The buzzing was still prominent in my audials, so most of the obligatory battle banter was lost on me. But I saw the Ground Bridge open not far from me and the Autobots rush towards it with Neighbor Kid cradled in Femme Fatale's hands. I tried to make my body move, but my frame had just enough time to fully register the pain I was in now.

I just watched the Autobots disappear one by one. The only thought that came to mind was the bogus excuse they would try to give Riley when she showed up tomorrow. Would she try to fight them for the truth? Attempt to look for me? My spark said she would, but I desperately hoped she wouldn't; I didn't want her running into Decepticons by herself.

Something suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. My cracked visor produced a pair of yellow blurs, and the buzzes I heard almost sounded deliberate now. I stumbled, but one of the blurs caught me.

Some beeps joined the buzzes, and the next thing I knew, a pair of door-wings were banging against both sides of my head. I shuddered at the familiar tingling sensation of the Ground Bridge. The moment it passed, I was on my back with the new cracks in my visor making the ceiling resemble one of those strange images from a kaleidoscope Riley showed me once.

The greys of the roof morphed into whites and oranges with a pinprick of blue. A muffled sound gave me a sudden sense of déjà vu, and I just stared at the swirling colors. "This afterlife is so much prettier."

Then—like the mechly mech I am—I blacked out.

* * *

 **AN:** End scene!

I feel like making Jeffrey black out at the end of a scene has become an almost common thing at this point XD But this chapter will definitely be the last chapter that sticks so strictly to the series; everything after this should only have small references to certain events that happen.

 **Question for the chapter:** How was Jeffrey and June's scene? Was June too out of character? I always thought that she was a little too nonchalant about sending her only son to a distant, dead planet, but I'm not sure if I even managed to convey that with her. :/

Until the next update! :D


	8. One Step Forward (Two Steps Back)

Drone 2.0: Drone Harder

Chapter VII

One Step Forward (Two Steps Back)

* * *

I think being around Autobots is detrimental to my health.

Hear me out—before I went soft for a human I was constantly being shot at by these guys. I started a new chapter in my life, moved to a new place, and now I've been knocked unconscious at least three times since running back into Autobots: once from a punch to the face, another after being poisoned, and the most recent being from Megatron…which totally counted because it was because of the Autobots that I even attacked him. _Clearly_ , the Autobots were a bad influence.

At least waking up wasn't that big of an issue this time. From what I remembered about being totally outmatched by Megatron, I wasn't really expecting to wake up. Since I did, I was equally surprised that I wasn't immediately bombarded by notifications about my injuries or low Energon levels. In fact, my tank felt fuller than it had ever been, before or after the 'Cons.

Okay, so maybe being with the Autobots wasn't a _completely_ bad thing.

I lifted the arm that had been injured, admiring the fact that it not only lifted without a problem or pain but also because I saw only one. I flopped it out perpendicular to the berth and slowly rotated my shoulder. "I think my arm might actually be _better_ than before."

I heard a huff and immediately jerked my arm back to my side. "That's not surprising considering you were a complete _mess_ before we met."

My head snapped to the side where Grumble-bot stood literally inches away from my head. He didn't seem at all agitated by the short distance between us, but I couldn't help but shift my entire frame to hug the edge of the berth. I hadn't seen or heard him when I woke up; that was a little disconcerting.

Grumble-bot hummed at his scanner before glancing at me, optics flickering up and down my frame. He reached out and grabbed the same arm I had been admiring without warning, and I automatically flinched. He grumbled at that. " _Please_ , you act as if you've never had a medic examine you before."

"Everyone made it a habit out of _avoiding_ the medics."

Grumble-bot frowned, but he still twisted my arm this way and that. Just when I thought his goal was to twist me into submission, he dropped my arm and leaned in close to my face. My head banged against the berth in an attempt to distance myself. "Hmm. It appears as if the material I used to temporarily replace your visor has implemented well enough. Are there any new messages on your HUD?"

I winked and tried to focus on the corners of my visor where my HUD usually sent new alerts. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be when Grumble-bot's optics were boring down on me. "No?"

He hummed again. "Hummer"—that would have been a good nickname for Grumble-bot too. "That's to be expected, I suppose. I'll have your real visor fixed in a few days. Until then, this fiberglass will keep your optics properly protected."

…I had optics beneath my visor? I always thought my optic band _was_ my optics. I'm learning so many new things lately.

Grumble-bot either didn't notice or didn't care about my surprise because he was already moving on to the next thing. I tensed when his blunt fingers poked the side of my head, and he turned to his scanner to poke it a few times too. "Audials are now fully functioning again. Are you hearing any odd noises? Whistling, buzzing, noises that sound like they're coming through a tunnel?"

I slowly shook my head and sat up while he moved to the foot of the berth. He poked the knee that was on the same side as my previously injured arm, and I took pride in the fact that I didn't flinch this time. He him frowned and reached for a needle-like tool on the small table positioned by my head.

Okay, I was a little concerned too when I didn't feel any pain from him jabbing the tool into my joint. "What's going on?"

"The pain inhibitors I gave you seem to be dissolving slower than usual." Warmth began to spread from the point where the needle was inserted to encompass my entire knee. A sharp sting began to emit from my knee shortly after, and I released a pathetic groan. Grumble-bot nodded and retracted the needle. "It's a common side-effect in some mechs; no need to worry."

I bent my knee as he moved on, taking the time to admire how fluidly it bent now. Grumble-bot had already moved on to my other side by the time I got over my awe, poking and prodding my joints with the same clinical attention. "No, I meant why are you acting so _weird_? Medic or not, you weren't nearly this attentive the first time I ended up here."

"You were also offline for the majority of the examination." He paused and bent my elbow up and down until whatever had caused him to paused seemed to right itself. He moved on to my head. "And though she packs a powerful punch, Arcee is not nearly as brutal as Megatron."

"We might have to agree to disagree there." When Grumble-bot finished his head examination, I lifted a hand to swipe it across my face. I paused when I passed over my visor, feeling the strange piece there now. It wasn't nearly as smooth as the material my real visor was made of. "After all, I'm pretty sure she's never punched you."

"You'd be surprised." I waited for him to continue, curious as to when that potential punch may have happened, but Grumble-bot's attention was now on his scanner. He hummed and tapped and didn't pay me any attention at all until he spoke again. "Everything seems to be in order again…except that chronometer of yours."

He looked up long enough for me to vehemently shake my head. "Like I said before, until I've fixed your visor, you'll have to make due with this replacement. You'll be placed on a strict schedule of Energon rations until then to prevent you from potentially falling below operating levels. I'll also be scanning you more often to detect if there are any other problems. Without your visor, your processor has no means of warning you of problems through your HUD since you won't let me in to change those settings."

I tilted my head and watched Grumble-bot grumble at his scanner until he was satisfied with what he read. He gave me a long look, and I tried to match it before realizing the futility of my attempts. Autobots just had the right mixture of stare and glare.

"You proved to us how easily we underestimated you." I tilted my head again and wondered how I was supposed to respond. Apparently I wasn't because Grumble-bot didn't pause. "Even the stasis cuff we placed on you did little when you were able to activate the Ground Bridge and leave the base."

I tried to think of an excuse that would validate my actions, but I couldn't think of anything. I _had_ taken advantage of the leeway they gave me as a prisoner; I _had_ shown that the stasis cuff only worked if I wasn't forcing myself through a Ground Bridge. What would they do now? Clearly, they were going to treat me like a proper prisoner now: lock me up and throw away the key. No more roaming the base; no more towers of empty Energon cubes; no more visits from Riley. The thought of not seeing Riley again hurt the most.

"Thank you."

My frame jerked, and Grumble-bot gave me a hard stare when my jerking sent me tumbling off the berth. I groaned when my head heavily connected with the floor, but I stayed there and just stared at the Autobot. He didn't seem all too pleased to see me on the floor, but he certainly made no move to help me back up. "What?"

"Thank you." I think my processor glitched again. _"Thank you_ "? That wasn't the proper response you gave your prisoner when they proved they could escape! "If you hadn't done what you did…we may not have been able to save Optimus."

I would have found Grumble-bot's obvious displeasure to be funny if I wasn't so shocked. I sat and stared at him long enough for him to huff and turn away. I don't know what made me activate my vocalizer; I should have just accepted my easy break with at least _one_ of the Autobots.

But I just couldn't stop myself from saying, "I didn't save your Prime."

Grumble-bot turned back to face me, obvious surprise flitting across his face. I angled my head down to stare at my feet bent awkwardly beneath me. "I didn't do anything but get flung around like a ragdoll by Megatron. If anything, you Autobots are the ones who saved _me_. Your kid is who really helped save the Prime—I just got in the way."

I could feel Grumble-bot's stare on me. It was like two little holes were being burned into the top of my head. I picked at the little rocks stuck in the groves on the bottom of my foot. Grumble-bot moved, and I glanced up just in time to see his optics roll towards the ceiling. "I'm starting to see why that girl makes it a point to defend you. There's a fine line between humbleness and stupidity."

"I'm not trying to be humble…or stupid!" Grumble-bot ignored me and walked towards the monitor. I huffed and flung the rock I had picked out of my foot towards him. It landed by his foot. "I'm just stating facts."

"As am I." Grumble-bots fingers swept across the keyboard, and the monitor above him flashed with numbers that I didn't understand. We passed the time in silence until I had the urge to climb back onto the berth. He turned his head when he heard my movements before focusing back on the monitor. "To answer your earlier question, Optimus wanted you fully repaired before he spoke to you."

I froze, and I probably looked like a bigger idiot than I already did with one leg in the act of stretching across the berth while the other was still on the floor. "Huh?"

"He'll be here momentarily." Grumble-bot didn't glance away from his work again. I slowly dragged my leg up onto the berth and sat staring at the wall. The noise from Grumble-bot's typing suddenly stopped, and I only had a brief second to register it before something smacked against the side of my head. I slowly turned my head to find a cloth hanging over the edge of the berth as Grumble-bot's typing resumed. "The least you can do is clean yourself up a little before he arrives."

I picked up the cloth, noting how similar it looked to the one that Grumble-bot had made me clean the berths with before, but I didn't use it to clean myself. Instead, I slowly folded it into a tiny square and rested it on my thigh. My tank churned a little, and I honestly wished that Tank or Femme Fatale were there to glare at me. That would make things feel a lot more normal than the forced kindness Grumble-bot gave me on behalf of his Prime, who I was apparently moments away from speaking with face-to-face.

That seemed a lot scarier than imminent death at the hands of Megatron.

* * *

Apparently, "momentarily" meant about three hours later. During that time, I gave myself pep talk after pep talk until I was at least able to move from the spot on the berth I had become practically glued to. I looked everywhere for my Rubik's Cube to help calm my nerves even more, but apparently it had become lost during whatever happened after I had blacked out.

Speaking of which, it took only a day for Grumble-bot to get me all repaired. A _day_! It would take weeks just for a Vehicon to limp around enough for Starscream to hiss that something be done about it. Even then, Knock Out would take one look at us, knock us out for "surgery," and then forget that he stashed us away in the corner of the med-bay. A Vehicon _never_ wanted to get that injured.

I was still a little surprised that the Prime had ordered me to be fixed. It didn't really make much of a difference if I could see or walk straight for him to reiterate my sentence. _Megatron_ certainly wouldn't have afforded the same courtesy; I'm pretty sure I had actually heard a rumor that he often ordered Starscream to "greet" prisoners before he even laid optics on them.

What was the Prime going to say? Now that he was back, was I just going to get an official verdict on my prisoner status? Would he demand a processor hack to ensure my sincerity? That all my ties to Riley be cut off? That I be forced to become the Autobots' official punching bag/cleaning drone to live another day?

I didn't even like cleaning out my own garage!

"Will you _stop it_."

I jolted from the berth and dived headfirst towards what was becoming my immediate place of escape: the floor beneath the berth. I put my hands over my head, as if to hide from my future fate, and heard a familiar sigh. "I swear to Primus, you're the jumpiest mech I have ever met."

I didn't respond to Grumble-bot. Instead, I moved my hands away from my head and hugged my knees to my chest. I had heard on one of the human talk shows that when you're stressed, you should escape to your happy place…or something like that. I had only watched it for the brief second it took to change the channels.

Either way, Grumble-bot didn't mess with me again, and I consider my happy place to be anywhere where Autobots left me alone.

I wasn't there for long when I heard the somewhat familiar sound of an engine cruising through the tunnel that led to the outside world. I say "somewhat" because it was only an engine that didn't sound the same as the Autobots I had become familiar with. Beeper's always had a faster, higher pitch to it; Tank's growled with the power of a Wrecker; and, of course, Femme Fatale's was smooth and sometimes nearly silent.

This engine was odd. It had a growl like Tank's, but it was also smooth, almost purring when it began to slow down. It distracted me to the point that I didn't even realize Beeper was pulling in alongside it until I heard the sounds of two transformations. Beeper beeped and whirred faster than I had ever heard him make noise until a deep voice answered. "I also enjoyed our patrol. It is good to be back, though it does not feel as if I left."

I ducked my head into my knees as Grumble-bot replied and began to gently rock back and forth. Happy place—gotta find a happy place. How do I find a happy place when my stress levels were through the roof?

"He's currently sulking on the floor behind the medical berth." I tensed and listened to Beeper buzz. "Bumblebee is correct. We've learned that this is normal behavior for him."

The sound of heavy footfalls approached my hiding spot. The garage! Hate to say it, but that cramped, smelly place was probably the happiest place I'd ever been. Maybe more so the one at Riley's old home though: less stinky and a little more elbow room.

The feet stopped on the other side of the berth, and I froze. There was only a brief second of silence before Grumble-bot spoke. "He's been fully repaired, barring his visor, which will take a few more days to fully repair, and a chronometer he refuses to allow me to fix. Otherwise, he's fully functional."

Way to throw me under the proverbial bus Grumble-bot. You totally deserve my nickname, you…Grumble-bot.

Seeing how I wasn't going to escape this inevitable fate, I slowly rose until my head crested the berth. I stopped when I saw red and carefully waved. "Hi…"

I didn't have the courage to look up farther than the windshield on the Prime's chest, but I could already imagine the look on his face. It could only be the look of someone who just realized the insanity of another.

So I just turned my gaze to whatever was behind the Prime and stared very intensely at Beeper, who clicked and beeped the longer I stared at him. Grumble-bot huffed. "Perhaps Bulkhead was correct; he _does_ appear to be unnaturally attracted to you."

Beeper and I both recoiled before Grumble-bot even finished his sentence. I jumped to my feet and cut off Beeper's strained buzzes. "I am _not_ attracted to Beeper! He's just the only one that doesn't threaten me with violence."

Now Beeper turned on me with a few low beeps. I vehemently shook my head. "Don't try to make this about you!"

"Enough."

The single word, said with a low, even voice, instantly ushered in a blanket of silence. Unlike me, who cowered once more behind the berth, Beeper and Grumble-bot were absolutely fine with the command. Grumble-bot gave the Prime a long look before he returned to whatever he had been doing while Beeper watched the Prime with bright optics, his door-wings fluttering non-stop behind him. It was clearly a sign of hero worship, if I ever saw one…which I never actually have. Unless TV shows count, but I've learned that they tend to exaggerate anything on TV.

"I have been informed that you prefer the designation Jeffrey." There was a long pause, and it wasn't until Beeper started cycling his optics at me that I realized the Prime was actually waiting for an answer. Not my fault—I can't tell when a Prime asks a question. Sure enough, as soon I nodded, Prime continued. "I would like you to follow me, Jeffrey."

His tone was pleasant and all, but there was no mistaking an order when I heard it. He had already taken a few steps towards one of the tunnels before I shuffled out from behind the berth. Beeper buzzed something as he passed, but the Prime only laid a hand on Beeper's shoulder for a brief second before continuing. I followed and gave Beeper a tiny wave, earning an obviously threatening glare in return. I could feel both Beeper and Grumble-bot's optics on me as I passed through the entrance to the tunnel, but I focused on Prime's back in an attempt to keep myself from becoming even more nervous.

It didn't work. My thoughts were fully focused on the possible things he could be leading me towards. A dungeon to rust in? A lab to be experimented on? Out back to be dismantled and used as spare parts? The storage room to sit in and wait to be called on like the poor little vacuum bots the humans advertised on TV?

Our trip was short—shorter than I expected at least. The Prime stopped at the first doorway on the right and turned to watch me catch up to him. My pace quickened, and I focused my optics on the ground. You know, to be sure that I didn't trip over my own feet.

That didn't work, and for the first time I could remember, I literally tripped over my own feet. Don't get me wrong: I've tripped before, but not over _my own feet_. I fell to the floor in a heap and wanted so badly for a freakishly coincidental hole to open up beneath me and swallow me whole.

The Prime made a small noise, and from my pile of shame on the floor, I watched his weight shift from one foot to the other. "Is there something wrong?"

"No!" I scrambled to my feet, losing my balance once or twice and stepping on my fingers in my rush to stand. I nervously tapped my fingers together and refused to look the Prime in the optics. "I…uh…yeah. Lead the way…please."

He didn't say another word, and I didn't catch any gestures he may have made as I focused intently on my fingers now. He entered the door we had stopped in front of, and I followed without a word. The room we entered was empty, save for a narrow berth shoved against the wall on the far side of the room.

This didn't look like any interrogation room I had ever encountered. Maybe the Autobots had a different sense of décor than Megatron and Starscream; after all, Starscream's favorite interrogation room had been the one on the _Nemesis_ where he could string up his victim in the middle of the room and poke them with an electric rod.

…I shouldn't be complaining about how the Autobots decorated their interrogation rooms.

I was too busy examining the room (and admittedly trying to ignore the Prime) that I didn't notice that Prime had stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face me. It wasn't until the door slid closed behind me that I tensed and decided that it was in my best interest to pay attention to the Prime. He was frowning and staring intently at me, as if to scrutinize my worth before the interrogation even began.

Let's be serious: that probably _was_ what he was doing. Was a lone Vehicon really worth wasting resources on to keep as a prisoner? The answer was a resounding "no." Even I knew that.

"I have been informed that you assisted my retrieval from the Decepticons."

I couldn't meet the Prime's optics. I lifted a hand to rub the back of my head. "Uh, yeah. Sorta."

"And that a young human has advocated on your behalf multiple times."

"Riley _can_ be pretty vocal." I tried to chuckle, but the Prime's flat expression made it come out as more of a squeak. "I'm sure your Autobots must've skimmed over her threats…"

"I was also informed of those."

"Oh…" I tapped my fingers together again and focused on the berth behind him. "Um…"

"While I may not yet have been witness to your actions, I have been briefed in great detail about your imprisonment for the past few weeks." I finally lifted my gaze and instantly regretted it. His stare pinned me down in some ways that were similar to Megatron's but also radically different. They both had this sense of power to them, but while Megatron's optics had always radiated anger or revulsion, Prime's were almost…encouraging. Not as wholly trusting or innocent like our first official meeting at the Space Bridge, but still full of _hope_.

It made me way more nervous than Megatron ever did. Like I was expected to live up to some hidden expectation that was realistically impossible for anyone to live up to. What that expectation was, I don't know. But if he looked at me like that for long enough, I'd be begging for an electric rod to poke me. Pain would easier to understand right now.

"Ratchet has also informed me of your insistence of your defection," Prime continued, wholly unaware of the effect his gaze had, "and it is because of these positive reports that I have made the decision to grant you more freedom around the base."

His words took me completely by surprise. "R-really?"

"Yes. While this is a rare decision that I do not make lightly, I consider the manner of your defection and previously observed behavior to be just as unique. However, there are conditions to this arrangement." I instantly deflated, my shoulders slumping and a vent escaping me. Prime obviously noticed, but his only act of acknowledgement was a blink. "You will be placed on a probation period of three orbital cycles—"

"Three months." I shook my head at the severe frown he gave me. "Sorry, I'm just so used to human terms now that I needed to clarify for myself."

His frown stayed, but his hard expression seemed to soften around the edges. "Yes, three months. During that time you will be under constant surveillance inside and outside of our base. You will still be restricted from the majority of the base, and you must be accompanied by one Autobot at all times. When not inside the base, you will remain within the town limits of Jasper and have all long distance communications disabled, save for an encrypted channel that will connect you to Ratchet."

Prime paused, as if expecting some protest. I didn't have any. It was understandable that I would be under constant surveillance and have no communications; I may not have been planning to take off back to the 'Cons, but I certainly had enough information on the Autobots to be welcomed back with a small promotion. I wonder if Megatron would even forgive me for kicking him if I told him the Autobots' base was definitely somewhere near Jasper, Nevada.

All of that was pretty much moot point though because I had more important questions. "Can I move back in with Riley? One of your humans lives right across the street from her, so I would always be under surveillance. And Riley and I wouldn't leave Jasper; her dad has this rule that she can't leave without him knowing."

Prime blinked, and I know for a fact that this time I had surprised him. I got the feeling that like Grumble-bot, our conversation wasn't panning out the way he had planned. "I…must have more time to observe your behavior before I make such a decision. Until then, your human companion may visit the base when the other children do."

I nodded and once more accepted the condition without protest. "Are those all the conditions of my probation?"

"Your weapons will remain offline as will your T-cog unless certain circumstances require otherwise." The Prime straightened, and his mood shifted. Whereas before he had still had a small sense of approachability, he now gave off the air of a severe commander who wouldn't take any nonsense.

I instantly shifted my frame to accommodate the change: snapping my feet together, straightening my spine, and making my arms rest tensely at my sides. It was the stance of a good foot soldier prepared to perform any order, no matter the personal risk.

Prime watched with a critical optic but made comment on my shift in posture as he continued. "I may be allowing you a chance to fully prove your sincerity, but let me be clear that I will not allow my benevolence to be taken advantage of. You will have no second chances—at the first sign that you prove insincere, I will personally ensure that you do not return to the Decepticons."

I shuddered a bit; for all the fear Megatron's biting voice instilled, it was _nothing_ compared to the icy, precise tone of the Prime. Coupled with the hard blue optics that stared me down, and he could have anyone quaking in fear if he really wanted to. I'm positive he knew the fear he could instill in a lonely foot soldier like me too. "I will not allow harm to befall any of my Autobots or our human allies. Not anymore."

I was nodding before he even finished. "Yes. I mean, of course. I understand." I paused and forced myself to meet his optics. If I wanted to prove my sincerity, it all started here: with the Prime. I had to make this count. "I have no plans of that happening. I might not ever be an Autobot, or even gain your full trust, but I'm certainly _not_ a Decepticon. Riley has shown me that."

Prime was silent, watching me with the intensity of, well, a Prime. I tried to keep his gaze, but eventually it just became too much, and I had to look away. My gaze landed on the tip of my foot, and I actually wished that my HUD still worked so the messages could distract me at least a little. Prime shifted, and my head snapped up.

"We shall see."

I don't know why, but it stung a little to hear the doubt in the Prime's voice. I mean, I never really expected him to fully believe me; actually, I think I would have thought less of him if he did, too gullible for my tastes. But…a part of my spark still sank at the knowledge that _no_ Autobot, not even their "Freedom for everyone" spouting leader, believed in my sincerity.

I was given a rare opportunity to prove myself, but could I really do this? Or would they begin to invent little lies—imperfections that they thought they saw in me—just to prove their own suspicions? Even with Prime's word, did I stand a chance?

"…this will be your room."

I snapped back to attention just in time to hear the end of Prime's statement. I glanced around the tiny space—the bare, concrete walls and lone berth—and blinked at the Prime. "What?"

"Ratchet has expressed his…preference that you do not remain in the medical bay area." Was that a nice way to say that Grumble-bot had gotten tired of seeing my face? If that's the case, I'll have to tell him that I'm hurt later. "And I agree with his assessment. This room will serve as your personal quarters during probation as this section of the base will be accessible to you because it contains all of our personal quarters."

In other words, try to sneak out of my room after curfew, and I'll surely have a 'Bot on me the moment I step outside. How reassuring. "But if I can move back with Riley?"

The Prime remained unmoved by my tentative question. "This room will serve as your personal quarters for the time being." He paused, as if mulling over his next words, before he stepped towards me. I stiffened but tried to relax the second I realized it. I'm starting to think that he chose to ignore anytime I flinch because there's no way he could have missed it when he held a hand towards me. "While I remain skeptical of the outcome of this, I sincerely hope that you prove yourself to be a mech of your word, Jeffrey."

I stared at the hand and slowly reached out. It felt odd holding the Prime's hand, but it served to solidify everything he just said. I felt my spark lighten at the hearty shake he gave my hand, only to immediately feel a new weight that nearly smothered my spark. I had transitioned from outright prisoner to prisoner on probation.

Wouldn't Riley be so proud of me?

* * *

Prime left me to get settled down in my new room soon after, leaving with a final order to visit Grumble-bot to get connected with our encrypted channel. I took my precious time investigating every empty corner of my new room. Avoiding medics had just become too ingrained a habit for me to kick so easily.

After poking at one particularly suspicious corner for long enough and checking beneath the berth for any surprises (I was a little disappointed at not finding any listening devices; did the Autobots not think I had important things to chat with myself about?), I finally vented and dragged my feet to the door. It opened without any problem and had no problem sliding closed as soon I walked across the threshold. I glared at the annoyingly compliant door—noting that there was no apparent way to lock it—before venturing forth to what had not that long ago been my spacy cage.

As I got closer to the big room, my audials picked up the sound of voices. I picked up speed when I instantly recognized one of the loudest voices. "I know how to completely strip a car of any part I want in a minute flat. And I have a potato that I carry everywhere in my backpack now; I've already shown Beeper there how dangerous a potato can be."

I froze the instant I reached the end of the tunnel. Riley was just whipping out a small potato from her backpack for the blinking, frowning Prime to behold, and for a second time that day, I wanted the ground to open beneath me and just suck me right in. From somewhere on the other side of the room, I heard the familiar rumbling chuckles of Tank, but that did nothing to sway the sudden embarrassment I felt.

"I assure you that Jeffrey is in no danger of being unjustly attacked again." Riley frowned and narrowed her eyes, potato still lifted in threat. Prime didn't cower for a second, which was to be expected considering he had been glared down by people a lot scarier than Riley. "While he may be on probation for us to fully observe him, Jeffrey will be treated with the same respect as a fellow Autobot. We cannot promote peace without practicing it ourselves whenever we are able to."

Riley's frown slightly fell, and she finally lowered that awful potato. She happened to spot me after a quick glance behind the Prime, and her expression hardened once more. I shook my head as she glared at the Prime once more before stashing her "weapon" away. "Well, I'm warning you just like everybody else. Jeffrey won't stand up for himself, so someone has to."

To my surprise, I thought I saw a small smile flit across the Prime's face. It was too quick to be certain though, and his grave nod made me think I had imagined it. "I understand."

Riley nodded and made a beeline towards me, leaving Prime to watch her. I tensed when he nodded towards me, but he turned away when Riley reached me and walked towards where Grumble-bot was working at his station. I bent down to pick up Riley and quickly glanced around the room. Tank and Beeper stood in front of the TV, watching their kids play some game. Femme Fatale seemed to be pointedly ignoring me as she sat in a corner with her kid, who looked like he was studying.

Riley sat down cross-legged in the palm of my hand and leaned back against my chest to look up at me. I tilted my head when she frowned. "What happened to your visor? It's…orangey-yellow now."

I used my other hand to scratch the side of my face. "Oh, I got my head slammed into the ground, and it cracked on impact."

"What!" I jumped at the sudden outburst, but Riley was already on her feet and leaning precariously over the edge of my hand. While I scrambled to keep her from falling, she glared fiercely at Prime and pointed an accusing finger at him when he turned like all the others to see what her shriek was about. "You just said no one would hurt Jeffrey! I'm done with all you Autobots saying one thing and then doing the complete opposite."

There was no doubt that the Prime was surprised now. He legitimately looked as if he didn't know how to respond to Riley's accusation. I cupped my hand around Riley and spun around to deflate the sudden tension in the room. "No, no! It wasn't their fault Riley. It was the Decepticons."

Riley instantly went quiet, and her face lost a bit of its usual color. She clung to my middle finger while her eyes flittered up and down my frame, as if in search of more injuries. She must have been remembering her own encounter with the Vehicon plus the very few horror stories I had told her. "What happened? How did they find you? Are they coming to take you back?"

"I just did something that was stupid, and the outcome was almost having my head cracked open." Riley's eyes widened even more, and I instantly began to backtrack. "I mean, it wasn't _that_ bad. Doc-bot had me totally repaired in less than a day; he's just gotta do a little more work on my visor. How long have you been here?"

Riley's expression changed just as quickly as it had when she had been handling the Prime. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed together in a flat line. " _Jeffrey_ …"

"I'm serious! I almost feel like a brand new mech! Did I tell you that I have my own room now?"

She finally let it go with a little huff, but at the same time she seemed to perk up a little. "You have your own room? Does that mean the big, new guy wasn't lying when he said you weren't a prisoner anymore?"

"Well…" I trailed off and glanced around. I didn't bother checking on any of the Autobots and instead made a beeline towards my—I mean, _Grumble-bot's_ medical berth and sat down. I placed Riley on the surface beside me where she sat down on the edge, her legs dangling far above the ground. "I'm still on probation, so I can't go wandering off on my own. But yeah, I guess I'm not so much a prisoner now as a… forced guest."

"That just sounds like a nice way to say prisoner."

"Meh, as long I get a daily ration of Energon, I'm good."

Riley laughed a little before she went on to describe her day at school and how she had forced Beeper to bring her to the base when none of the other kids had shown up for school yesterday. I listened with half an audial, humming and nodding at the right places with practiced ease, while I tried to subtly check everyone else in the room.

My careful glances didn't work, at least not with Femme Fatale, who had her narrow optics trained on me. I instantly turned my attention to Beeper and Tank, who were cheering on their humans in an apparently vigorous video game war, and I brought a hand up to check my visor. I hadn't been able to see what it looked like now, but Riley's notice of it and Femme Fatale's unwavering gaze made me more self-conscious than usual. I was ready to have my actual visor fixed and was almost tempted to bug Grumble-bot to see when he would have it repaired.

As my optics flickered away from Bunny's and Tank's victory dances, I happened to catch Prime staring at me as well. My tank did a little flip when I inadvertently caught his optic, but something was different. His optics weren't as hard as they had been, and they were brighter as he unashamedly watched Riley and me from across the room.

"…so I told Raf we could totally team up since Jack and Miko were pairing up. With my background in cars and his knowledge of computers, we can _totally_ put together a project that will blow theirs out of the park. Oh! I found your Rubik's Cube over by the TV. Don't know how it got there, but I thought you'd be missing it soon if you weren't already."

My head snapped towards Riley, and an embarrassing squeal escaped me before I could help it. Riley laughed as I carefully pinched the Rubik's Cube between my fingers. "I thought I had lost it forever!"

"I knew it." Riley laughed some more when I immediately began to flip the layers around, using the quickest strategy to make the colors match. She twisted and turned to check the area before scooting closer to my thigh as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I figured if we're really sneaky, I can time you so you can beat your personal record before anyone catches on and pulls the whole 'he can't be within twenty feet of technology' excuse."

I snickered but felt my spark swell with more than just humor. I hummed, fiddling with the cube in my hand, and glanced back over at the Prime. He was still staring, and while there was still the familiar look of suspicion, there was also more of that glint of expectation I had seen in his optics earlier. My fingers froze when he nodded and fully turned his back on us, speaking to Grumble-bot in a voice too low for anyone else to hear.

I shifted on the berth and glanced down at Riley, who was waiting for me to begin. My fingers shook even as I nodded for her to begin the timer, and I wasn't nearly as focused on the game as I usually was. Something inside me wanted me to believe that I had just somehow passed one of the many hidden tests the Prime would give me in the next three months without even realizing it. I glanced back up at Femme Fatale and immediately looked away from her glare.

Now if I only I could magically make the same the impression on some of the other Autobots…

* * *

"C'mon, Raf! You can beat him!"

I tapped my fingers together as I stood far behind Tank and Beeper and watched the kids race on the screen of the TV. After a few timed sessions of Rubik's Cube-ing, even I had gotten a little bored and ready to do something else. Prime and Grumble-bot had left some time ago, saying something about a quick patrol around the area before Grumble-bot connected me with our special channel. By then, Neighbor Kid had finished his studying and had Glasses ask Riley if she wanted to participate in a gaming tournament.

I feel like she would have said no if it was anyone but Glasses who had asked her. By the way she refused to sit by Neighbor Kid on the couch and how Bunny pointedly scooted away from her, there was still some tension between my little human and Autobots' humans. Fortunately, she seemed to be getting along a lot better with Glasses, and I was happy to see her have a real human friend for the first time since I met her.

She sucked at video games though. Glasses had her beat before her pixelated magenta car could even finish the first lap. I tried to cheer her on, but after a short glare from Tank, I decided to silently pray for her success from a distance. Not even prayers could save her from defeat.

Unlike me, she took the defeat in stride and went straight to cheering on Glasses as he and Neighbor Kid duked it out after Bunny's elimination. Not to be outdone, Bunny took her spot behind Neighbor Kid to be his cheerleading squad with Tank. "C'mon, Jack! Just a little more…you're taking the turn too sharp!"

"Miko!" Neighbor Kid swatted at her hands when she leaned over his shoulder. "Stop it! You're going to make me lose."

" _No_ , you're gonna make yourself lose with those horrible turns."

"Don't be a backseat gamer!"

"Don't be so bad, and I wouldn't be a backseat gamer."

"Says the one who _lost_."

Bunny must've bumped something on the controller because the blue car on the screen suddenly shot out the rockets it had picked up along the track. They hit Glasses' green car dead on, and he spun off the track. While he respawned, Neighbor Kid snatched the controller away from Bunny and sped down the last bit of the track to hit the finish line.

Glasses sighed when he finished a few seconds later, but he smiled as the other two forget their previous argument with a congratulatory high-five. Riley slumped against the couch. "Dang it. We almost had them."

"It's okay." Glasses leaned in closer to her, and Beeper whirred when I stepped a little too close to him to hear what was being said. "I let him win. He gets a little upset when everyone beats him too much."

"I do _not_." Laughter followed Neighbor Kid's outburst. Even Tank chuckled a bit before he turned a glare on me, as if to tell me my chuckles weren't allowed. My armor clamped down, and I shuffled back to a safe distance. "Where did Arcee go? I know she doesn't like games as much, but she usually tells me where she's going."

"Probably checking something out on the other side of the base." Tank gave me a long look, and I immediately caught on that what she was doing was something my probation didn't allow me to know. "Or just avoiding the 'Con. It's not often one tells her she's pretty."

I tensed and ignored Riley when she whipped around on the couch to face us. "Wha—I didn't—"

"Oh yeah!" Bunny hopped around to lean on the railing. I hadn't interacted with her much, but I could spot the mischievous glint in her eyes from a mile away. "You practically fell on her too when you flopped off 'Bee's back after he carried you through the Ground Bridge."

Beeper buzzed, and Glasses was kind enough to at least give some context. "At least she caught him…or at least kept his head from hitting from the floor. Ratchet said his visor might've been beyond fixing if it had cracked a little more."

My armor was clamping down so hard that I actually felt it pinch a little. Tank and Bunny were laughing at her impression of me ("Ooh, she's so much prettier!") while Neighbor Kid and Beeper chuckled a bit. Riley scowled at all of them, and Glasses had a strained grin, as if he couldn't decide whether to find it all funny or actually have some pity for me.

Pity was just as bad as the teasing, and I decided that the only way to save face was a hasty retreat. "I just remembered I forgot something in my room, so…yeah. Brb."

I wasn't halfway across the room when Riley started ripping the Autobots a new one. I wanted to be happy that she immediately jumped to my defense—telling them that they were bullying me while Neighbor Kid insisted it was just teasing—but I didn't. In fact, I felt kinda…pathetic. I don't remember exactly what happened right before I blacked, so I could have very well said something along those lines. Maybe that's why Femme Fatale had been glaring at me, not that she hadn't glared before. She had just been…glaring more than usual, I guess.

Man, if I really did say that…that's _so_ embarrassing. I bet it's definitely not the best way to get on her good side. Like, what if she thinks I'm obsessing now? I mean, sure, I find her choice of alt-mode attractive, and it was pretty mind-blowing to watch her fight when I wasn't constantly worried about ending up dead…but I wasn't at a point where I was constantly _obsessing_ over her. She didn't know that though, and I've heard that a person's most truthful when they're completely out of their mind and on the brink of death…or something like. I learn so much from human television now that I can't tell what's fact and what's not.

"What are you doing by yourself?"

I jumped and cringed when I realized I had nearly walked straight into the very Autobot I was thinking about (not _obsessing_ , mind you; just…thinking about). She looked just as angry as always: arms crossed over her chest, a severe frown on her face, and the tinge of the magenta circle in the center of her optics more noticeable when she glared. I glanced away when I realized I had stared into her optics for too long. "Uh…"

"Optimus said you were to be under supervision at all times." I became super interested in the tips of my middle fingers as I tapped them together. They looked duller than usual. Maybe Grumble-bot would give me a file to work on them if that wasn't considered a weapon. "And you have no business snooping outside of the other hab-suites."

"I wasn't snooping!" Her optics narrowed even more, and I instantly regretted my outburst. "I mean…I was just going to my own room. I must've gotten lost in thought or something."

I shifted from one leg to another when Femme Fatale remained silent. Her glare never strayed from me, and her hands slowly curled into fists with every nervous tick I performed. I was about to fall to me knees and beg for forgiveness when she spoke again. "Optimus may be lenient in his decision, but that doesn't change anything. You may have some of us fooled, but I find it hard to believe that a Vehicon just woke up one day and decided to stop being a 'Con."

My embarrassment from earlier curled around my spark, and maybe it had something to do with the sudden anger I felt. I forced myself to stare Femme Fatale straight in the optics. "You act like I had a choice in being a Decepticon to begin with. I was a drone—created for the sole purpose of being cannon fodder for Megatron's cause. So don't act like you _know_ me anymore than I know you."

"I know that you're coded to be a Decepticon." Just like that, the anger was gone, and I was back to flinching under Femme Fatale's glare. No wonder I had felt so pathetic from Tank's and his human's teasing; I wasn't really the toughest mech around. "We had enough scientists examine drones back on Cybertron to know that as fact. I know that the only one advocating your change is a little girl whose home life you've taken advantage of. You joke and act like you don't take any of this serious, always playing with your toy or complaining about missing some show. You cower every chance you get. You may have fought against Megatron, but that only proves your loyalties so much. After all, Starscream is constantly betraying Megatron, and he's always welcomed back."

Femme Fatale's optics strayed behind me, and I turned around to face the hallway I had no memory of even walking down. Riley was sprinting down the tunnel, and she gasped for air and readjusted the tilted cap on her head when she reached me. "Jeff…I've gotta…I didn't…I almost punched him again, but I held back!"

Her grin fell when she noticed the Autobot standing behind me, and her glare instantly resurfaced. I didn't have to turn back to Femme Fatale to know that she was glaring at the back of my head now; the scorching heat from her glare was enough of a hint. I forced a chuckle. "Good. I was starting to worry I would have to send your dad an anonymous email about anger management classes."

Riley barely acknowledged me and continued to glare at Femme Fatale. Her mouth curled into a scowl. "You better leave Jeffrey alone."

"I don't make any promises." I quickly stepped aside when I heard Femme Fatale move behind me. She gave me one last glare for good measure as she walked pass, but she didn't say another word to me. Instead she directed her words towards Riley. "Optimus has him on probation for observation. Until then, he better get used to all the added attention."

I heard a low growl escape Riley and wanted to scoop her up and prevent her from saying anything she could possibly regret. To my surprise, Riley didn't say anything and just watched Femme Fatale walk down the hallway. The Autobot stopped at the archway and turned back to face us, her stance making it obvious that she was going to stay there and watch. I ushered Riley towards my automatic bedroom door and waited until it closed behind us to breath a sigh of relief.

Riley continued to scowl at the door. "I don't like her."

"She's…not all that bad." I tried to shrug, but Riley had turned her scowl towards me. "It's…understandable. Her suspicions…all of their suspicions."

"Suspicions I get, but they act like they're _trying_ to find ways to make you mess up. Like Musclehead was trying to antagonize you by being all intimidating."

"I think his name is Bulkhead."

"Same difference." I shook my head, but Riley seemed to be calming down a little as she twirled around to check my cool new room. She stopped after one full twirl and pursed her lips. "Your room is so dull."

"Well, thanks. Really."

"I'll sneak in some posters, or paint, or something next time I visit. Maybe even bring Furball to keep you company."

I chuckled again and let Riley rant about the excuses the Autobots had given her. My talk with Femme Fatale had made me realize though that I couldn't let Riley continue to solely defend me. I had to make my own impression on the Autobots now that the Prime was back and giving me a chance to prove myself, whether it was just an act or not. I couldn't just get upset because Tank teased me about something or let Femme Fatale rip my arguments to pieces when she didn't even _know_ me.

I had to prove myself to all of them before my three months came to an end; I had to make each moment count. I had to figure out how to stay alive or I might never have a chance to escape this stupid Autobot versus Decepticon slag again.

* * *

 **AN:** I guess it's official then: Jeffrey is now the Autobots' "forced guest." ;P

Questions for the Chapter: How do you feel about Optimus's treatment of Jeffrey (more specifically, the probation period)? Was he too lenient or did his decision seem in-character? Speaking of in-character, are the Autobots too mean in this chapter? I wanna be sure that they treat Jeff like the proper Decepticon they accuse him of being, but I don't want their reactions to be _too_ over the top, if you what I mean. :)

Until the next update! :D


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